Announcement • Jul 02
Freegold Ventures Limited Reports Additional Drill Results from Golden Summit Project in Alaska
Freegold Ventures Limited has reported additional drill results from its Golden Summit Project in Alaska, where drilling continues. Six rigs are currently operating at Golden Summit. The 2026 program is designed to move the project toward an updated mineral resource estimate and a Pre-Feasibility Study planned for 2027. Rather than expanding the deposit size, this year's work focuses on strengthening confidence in the resource already identified--especially the higher-grade areas--and gathering the technical data needed to determine which part of the deposit could best support an initial starter pit. Ongoing work continues to strengthen Freegold's interpretation of Golden Summit as a large gold system with multiple mineralizing controls. In the Dolphin area, mineralization displays key characteristics of an intrusion-related gold system, comparable in style to Kinross Gold's Fort Knox mine, supporting the potential for a deeper primary gold source deeper to the south within the intrusive complex. To the north and east, mineralization transitions into a shear-hosted style, as demonstrated in the Cleary Zone. This overlap between structurally controlled mineralization and the intrusion-related system at Dolphin reinforces the scale and complexity of Golden Summit and supports the potential for multiple mineralizing events across the broader system. Higher-grade mineralization remains closely associated with well-defined structural corridors identified through ongoing drilling, which have now been traced continuously for more than 1.5 km from the Cleary Road Cut Shear to the southwest across a width of 100–300 metres. The importance of structural control on grade at Fort Knox further underscores the significance of these corridors in concentrating gold. At Golden Summit, this structural framework extends across an interpreted 10 km trend in schist host rock, highlighting the project's considerable exploration upside and the opportunity to continue refining priority higher-grade targets as drilling advances. The PFS is expected to assess a smaller, technically supported portion of the Golden Summit resource rather than the current Mineral Resource Estimate. To support that approach, current drilling and technical work are organized around five objectives: Confirming grade continuity across the targeted areas, Improving geological confidence in the resource model, Evaluating the metallurgical performance of the mineralized material, Supporting pit design, Defining water-management requirements. Drilling is progressing well, with over 25,000 metres completed already in 2026. The holes have been designed to infill shallow gaps to the north and south of the proposed pit, as well as to continue exploration to greater depth within and around the proposed pit shell sequence. Two holes (GS2607 and GS2610) drilled on Section 479050E continue to affirm the potential for a higher-grade core of the main deposit area. GS2607, in the northern part of Dolphin, underlain by schist host rock and collared near the Cleary Road Cut Shear on its hanging-wall side, returned 2.08 g/t Au over 62.1 m, starting at 371.9 m depth within 102.3 m of 1.67 g/t Au. Highlights within this mineralized zone include 1.4 m of 16.72 g/t Au at 375.1 m related to a disaggregated quartz vein in a deformation (fault) zone; and 2.6 m of 10.16 g/t Au at 417.4 m related to a steep extensional quartz-arsenopyrite-pyrite vein. GS2610, in the southern part of Dolphin, collared near the northern margin of Dolphin stock (granodiorite and tonalite), returned 0.85 g/t Au over 82.3 m starting from 294.7 m and 1.25 g/t Au over 51.9 m starting from 453.2 m, both within a 405.4 m interval at 0.76 g/t Au starting from 102.7 m. Highlights within this broad interval include 3 m of 3.3 g/t Au at 413.6 m related to a fault-disaggregated quartz vein within the tonalite stock margin, and 3 m of 4.31 g/t Au at 499 m within a zone of sheeted quartz-arsenopyrite-jamesonite veins in silicified tonalite. Additional results from the Dolphin area reported below GS2604 (northern Dolphin) which returned 1.09 g/t Au over 50.5 m starting at 332.4 m. Three holes (GS2606, GS2608 and GS2609) were designed to infill shallow gap areas in northern Cleary above the CRCS. GS2608, in the northern part of Cleary underlain by schist host rock and collared on the hanging-wall side of the CRCS, returned 0.90 g/t Au over 113.7 m starting from 86.5 m. Highlights within this interval include 3 m of 9.92 g/t Au at 136.2 m related to a white quartz vein with visible gold and arsenopyrite in a narrow rubble zone with sericitic alteration. GS2609, in the northern part of Cleary, returned 1.52 g/t Au over 27.4 m starting from 69.2 m. One exploration hole (GS2605) was completed in the WOW zone to further test for the western extension of the Dolphin Area mineralization. GS2605, collared 300 m west of the Dolphin stock, returned 1.02 g/t Au over 66.0 m starting from 644.0 m. Highlights within this interval include 3 m of 7.48 g/t Au at 707.0 m related to steep extensional quartz-pyrite-arsenopyrite veins in schist. Metallurgical test work is ongoing to compare processing options and select the preferred process flowsheet for the PFS. That flowsheet has not yet been finalized. Additional results from pilot plant work on the 50kg concentrate over the winter are expected to be reported shortly. Freegold is selecting additional metallurgical drill holes based on results from its 2025 and 2026 drilling for further testing, focusing on the areas most relevant to a potential starter pit. Alongside drilling, Freegold is advancing the engineering, hydrogeology and environmental baseline studies needed for a well-defined PFS. Work is continuing on the environmental baseline studies that have been underway for several years. The 2026 hydrogeology program builds on last year's program, in which Freegold installed vibrating wire piezometers (VWPs) to enable ongoing groundwater monitoring. This year's program is expected to include monitoring wells and a pumping well to establish water quality, groundwater inflow conditions and pit dewatering requirements. In addition, Stantec is continuing its avian and mammal habitat assessments and wetland studies. The program includes field investigations, geotechnical logging, laboratory testing, rock mass characterization and engineering analysis for pit slope design. The work will be completed in stages as more data is collected and interpreted, and it will inform pit-wall design, slope-stability assumptions and the pit-slope design criteria required for the PFS. Drilling to support this work is expected to commence mid-July. As of July 2025, Golden Summit hosts an Indicated Primary Mineral Resource of 17,200,000 ounces at 1.24 g/t Au (432,000,000 tonnes) and an Inferred Primary Mineral Resource of 11,900,000 ounces at 1.04 g/t Au (358,000,000 tonnes), using a 0.5 g/t cut-off grade and a gold price of $2,490.
