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SOO GOLD PROSPECT

INTRODUCTION

Felix Pedro discovered gold in Fairbanks district of Alaska, on July 22,1902. Since that time 10 Million ozs of gold have been produced in the district. The Soo Gold Prospect is situated on the north side of Pedro Dome; adjacent to the True North Mine operated by Fairbanks Gold Mining Incorporated. Gold occurrences and production on the property have been well documented. Exploration confirms that gold occurs in mineable grades.

LOCATION & ACCESS

Located in the State of Alaska, Fairbanks Mining District, Fairbanks Meridian, Township 3 North, Range 1 East, Sections 33, 34, 35. Also Township 2 North, Range 1 East, Sections 3, 4, 5. The Soo Gold Prospect is 25 miles north of the city of Fairbanks, on the Steese Highway. Pedro Dome road leads into the 1100-acre claimblock. There are Power lines just adjacent the property.

OWNERS & LAND STATUS

John Andresen, M. Dennis Shepard, and A.M. Mining Ltd. own the Soo Gold Prospect. The Soo Gold Prospect is comprised of 10 Patented Mining Claims (235 acres), and 34 State Mining Claims (865) acres. The claims include all Placer and Lode rights, with Water rights on Dome creek. The patented claims enjoy all the rights of private land.

HISTORY

The property contains one of the original Hardrock discoveries in Fairbanks. Gold Veins were discovered in 1909, and worked by W.L. Spaulding. Records show 1-10 OPT ore was mined from the Soo, H & K, and Wild Rose Veins. Several operators mined to a depth of 200 feet. In 1931 the Woods Adit discovered and produced gold from the Woods, and Alpha veins. Only short distances along strike of the veins were worked, but by 1935 more than 20,000 ounces of Au were produced by stamp mill. Old mine records show the gold veins were traced another 1500 feet west by trenching, but were never mined due to the closing of mining at the beginning of World War 2. Drift mining and Dredge operations produced Thousands of additional ounces of gold from Dome creek. A.M. Mining Ltd. still mines placer gold from the claims on Dome creek. Several Companies have held the claims over the years, including, Mohawk Oil and Gas, Teryl resources, Newmont Mining Exploration, and Kinross Gold Company.

LOCAL GEOLOGY & MINERALIZATION

The Claimblock is located in Paleozoic, amphibolite-greenschist facies rocks, of the Fairbanks Schist. The rocks to the South and east in the claimblock, are Quartz-muscovite schist, and Quartzites of the Fairbanks schist; in contact with and intruded by, Cretaceous age (92 ma) Tonalite/Quartz Diorite of Pedro Dome. In the Northwest corner, the Eldorado Fault runs through the claimblock. High-grade metamorphic rocks including; fine-grained carbonaceous micaceous quartz schist, a mafic amphibolite schist, eclogite facies schist, and Quartz-muscovite schist of the Chatanika Terrain, are thrust against the Fairbanks Schist.

Mineralization occurs in shear zones and is of two Types.

1. 1) The Fairbanks Schist hosts High grade, mineralized Au, Ag, As, Sb bearing quartz veins in Shear Zones. These have been the source of gold at the Soo where many East-West trending veins have been discovered. An economic analysis by Mohawk Oil and Gas in 1985, indicated a possible 350,000 ounces. All 7 drill holes by Kinross Gold Company in July 2000 intersected gold bearing intervals. These efforts centered on the historically mined zone, 250+ ft wide X 1500 ft long. Some of the better drill holes included visible gold in them:
   
   

   Hole #	Width	Grade (opt)	Grade X Thickness
   Mohawk 84-6	8 feet	0.630	5.04
   96-TN433C	11 feet	0.098	1.078
   	2 feet	0.245
   00-TN-1006	25 feet	0.062	2.80
   	10 feet	0.125

   
   
2. The Chatanika Terrain rocks host mineralization of the True North deposit. Gold mineralization occurs in flat lying shear and breccia zones. Highly graphitic breccias with numerous veins of quartz + carbonate + sulfide. The True North deposit is on the north side of the Eldorado Fault line. The fault line runs through the northwest portion of the Soo Gold Prospect. The True North Type Ore is Au, As, Sb mineralization. Ore is averaging 0.072 opt at the Kinross True North Mine. Newmont Mining Exploration on the Soo Gold Property encountered this Ore Type in two 1997 drill holes.

*97TN-609 also contained a 5 foot interval of 1.257 opt

2003 EXPLORATION RESULTS

Exploration continued in 2003. Shepard and Andresen conducted a program based on the historical writings and observations of Spencer & O’Neill (1934). Trenching and sampling west of the Spaulding shaft resulted in the discovery of the unmined extension of the Wild Rose Vein. The vein was exposed as a 3 foot wide cross section containing two veins of distinctly different character separated by a gouge zone. One vein was of cockscomb quartz with abundant visible gold. The other was a less sheared quartz with visible gold, and perfect quartz crystals radiating away from the hanging wall. Both veins are stained dark red to bright orange with Fe oxidation and ankerite after graphite. The gouge zone between the veins contained abundant free gold to 3mm. The Veins dip together at 55 – 59 degrees. The strike is 272.5 degrees on the footwall vein, 300 degrees on the hanging wall vein, which suggests that these two are intersecting veins. Samples were taken across the structure giving values as high as 144 ppm (4.1 opt). A 200 lb milled sample returned a 76.1 ppm (2.2 opt).

DISCUSSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

Exploration on the Soo Gold Prospect includes 1996 & 1997 soil grids, and 30 drill holes by Newmont Mining Exploration. There are 7 drill holes by Kinross Gold Exploration. Most of the drilling focused on the worked area on the Soo, and traced veins back toward Pedro dome to the east. The drilling has confirmed the observations made by the early miners. The gold occurs in intervals from 5-35 feet thick in the drill holes. All of the drilling was by reverse circulation, with values reported on 5 foot intervals. Spacing between drill holes was on 400 by 1500 foot grid. No holes were drilled on the veins westward extension toward the Eldorado fault. The veins discovered in 2003 suggest that a program of core drilling to the west of the Spaulding shaft should be undertaken. The core drilling should have tight spacing over the 1500 feet of exposed veins.

DATA, MAPS, AND REFERENCES

The historical records of the Soo Mine can be found in U.S.G.S. Bulletins 442, 525,662.

1. Prindle, L.M. 1909 Auriferous quartz veins in the Fairbanks district USGS Bulletin 442
   
   
2. Hill, J.M. 1931 Lode deposits of the Fairbanks district, Alaska. U.S.G.S. Bulletin 849-B
   
   
3. Spencer, W.W., and O’Neill, W.A., 1934 A survey of gold quartz veins on the North flank of Pedro Dome. Alaska School of Mines thesis paper.

The author cites data from confidential reports:

1. Newmont Alaska Exploration, 1996 &1997, Shepard & Andresen.
   
   
2. Property report. Kinross Gold Exploration, 2000, Soo Prospect report.

The author relied on the work of:

1. Newberry et al. 1996 Preliminary geologic map of Fairbanks mining district. Public data file 96-16.
   
   
2. A. Bakke et al. 2000 Kinross Gold USA’s Activities in the Fairbanks Mining District, K2K

For more info contact: Miner's Manual

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