Prospecting Creates new Klondike Gold Rush

I just had the opportunity to read a story in the Globe and Mail concerning new gold discoveries made in the Klondike. It seems that gold prospecting may have finally located at least one of the elusive mother lodes that thousands of fortune hunters and would be prospectors searched for over 100 years ago.

I think this shows that prospecting is a very useful profession and it can be rewarding, but it takes time to do it right!

Here are some parts of the full story.

"We've finally found the first one that actually shows enough gold in one spot to say, 'Ahh, this is the type of deposit that could have produced the Klondike,' " said Shawn Ryan of Dawson, Yukon.

Mr. Ryan has combined 10 years of old-fashioned bushwhacking with the latest high-tech data gathering to find a gold belt nine kilometres long. The prospector's find is in the so-called White Gold area, south of Dawson, near where the White and Yukon rivers meet.

The area isn't new to gold seekers. In the late 1890s, it was part of the Klondike Gold Rush, which saw tens of thousands of hopeful "cheechakos," or newcomers, flood into the Yukon hoping to pan and sluice their way to riches.

Dawson swelled to 30,000 as creeks and gravel bars yielded millions of dollars of gold. Much of it was spent in bars such as Diamond-Tooth Gertie's, which provided Mr. Service with rich material for his oft-quoted odes such as The Cremation of Sam McGee.

The sources of that gold were never found. But Maurice Colpron of the Yukon Geological Survey says the White Gold find could be one of them

"The motherlode is still out there and that's the hype around the White Gold area."

Plenty of miners seem to think so. There are at least 29 junior mining companies active in the area. About 7,900 claims have been staked since late 2006.

Mineral exploration spending in the Yukon has risen from $7-million in 2002 to over $100-million in 2007 and 2008. Even in recessionary 2009, government figures suggest mining companies will spend up to $60-million.

Early drilling results explain the rush. Many operating mines exploit deposits that yield one gram of gold per tonne of ore. White Gold-area miners report 100-metre stretches of claim that yield three or four times that.

One company says a small section of its claim contains 410 grams of gold a tonne.

"People are really starting to realize this is a great place to explore," said Susan Craig, director of the Yukon Chamber of Mines and president of Northern Freegold Resources, one of the region's main players.

Link to Globe and Mail Story

As Been Webber the author of the article says " Somewhere, the ghost of Robert W. Service is smiling."

Let us keep on prospecting! Have a great and rewarding day.

EagleRidge Minerals Increases Ground Position in Newfoundland and Labrador

Pinawa, Manitoba July 12th, 2009

EagleRidge Minerals Ltd (ERM) is excited to announce today that is has made some sufficient additions to its mineral claim portfolio in Newfoundland and Labrador. ERM has staked new ground in the Baie Verte area for gold and the Goose Cove area for copper.

ERM has added an additional 13 claims in the Micmac lake region on the Baie Verte Peninsula, approximately 40 kilometres to the south of the community of Baie Verte,, Newfoundland. These claims were staked to cover several known gold showing that were discovered and worked on by Noranda in the late 1980’s. The historical gold showings are known as the Crow Hill South and Raven zones. Both showings are spatially associated with the Crow Hill topographic linear.

Historical exploration work in the area consisted of sampling, geophysics, trenching and limited diamond drilling.
Mineralization is structurally controlled and hosted in quartz veins with intense alteration of the host rock. Channel samples over the Raven zone returned historic surface channel sample values of 1.88 g/t Au over 4 metres and 2.19 g/t Au over 1 metre from diamond drilling. The Crow Hill South Zone yielded historic assays of 1.03 g/t Au over 12 metres from surface channel sampling and 1.87 g/t Au over 11 metres from diamond drilling. Mineralized float in the area returned historic assay values up to 16 g/t Au.

In addition, ERM is pleased to announce that it has added to their mineral claim ground position in the Goose cove area of Newfoundland and Labrador. This area is located approximately 10 kilometres south of the community of St. Anthony’s, Newfoundland. The claims cover the historical past producing Goose Cove Copper Mine. The Goose Cove Mine opened in 1908 and operated for several years. Production records are poorly available but the grade of the copper ore averaged 8-10% copper with approximately 4% copper in the adjacent schist host rock.

Phase 1 of the exploration plan for the Gosse cove area will start in the late summer of 2009. This work will consist of reconnaissance mapping and prospecting. Phase 1 of the new gold claims on the Baie Verte Peninsula will also consist of reconnaissance mapping and prospecting. This work will be carried out in the fall of 2009.

Carey Galeschuk, P.Geo, ERM President and COO, is the qualified person for these projects.