On Top Of It All

A picturesque aerial photo of Underworld’s White Gold property clearly shows the camp, its vast surroundings, and its new 17-km track. The inset photo is of White Gold’s founding prospector Shawn Ryan while below, camp dog “Dawson” blends in and keeps watch of what’s going on, especially near the kitchen where his owner, Danny Levesque worked last summer.

”You’d never get here by accident,” says Adrian Fleming, President of Underworld Resources, as he looks out across the company’s White Gold properties located high atop Mount Stewart, some 95 km south of Dawson City.

In fact, until this past summer, the only way to the company’s Golden Saddle and Arc discoveries was by air or river but as Fleming says as he proudly points to a cut in the trees near his mountain-top camp, that’s all changed thanks to that 17 km track leading down the mountain to an airstrip at Thistle Creek and to a barge landing on the Yukon River.

Infrastructure, as every miner knows, is vital to any discovery’s success and a road is one of the key components that help make any success even more realistic. In Underworld’s case, however, success was written all over this project long before the road was ever built because as almost every prospector and developer in the Yukon, across Canada, and around the world for that matter now knows, the “White Gold” discovery is one of the more promising gold discoveries in recent history.

That says a lot but in this case, Underworld’s findings speak for themselves.

Since acquiring the White Gold properties in 2007 from founding prospector Shawn Ryan (a man who Fleming calls a self-taught, geological “genius”), Underworld has invested heavily both in terms of manpower and capital and last year it spent more than $9 million alone on drilling at Golden Saddle and Arc Zones.

The 2009 drill program of 25,670 m achieved 60 holes at Golden Saddle and 19 holes at Arc Zone. This program drew both deposits with dramatic expansion at Golden Saddle, which is now thought to contain at least one million ounces. The deposit footprint is 400 m x 450 m and a quick look at the results from just a few of the holes drilled last summer confirms why “White Gold” is making headlines around the world.

Just look at what Underworld found at: Hole No. 31: 104.0 m averaging 3.39 g/t Au; No. 47: 31.1 m averaging 9.20 g/t Au; No. 64: 100.4 m averaging 3.13 g/t Au; No. 69: 76.9 m averaging 3.40 g/t Au; No. 72: 49.5 m averaging 3.49 g/t Au; No. 78: 44.5 m averaging 4.3 g/t Au; No. 91: 91.28 m averaging 3.69 g/t Au; and at No. 101: 48.75 m averaging 3.67 g/t Au.

Spurred on by these findings, Underworld has significantly expanded its land holdings in the White Gold District through acquisition and additional staking. In total, the company now holds title to 3,614-quartz mining claims covering 731 sq. km.

Moving even further forward, Underworld has now retained JDS Energy and Mining of Kelowna, BC, (builders of the Yukon’s famous Minto Mine) to complete engineering studies and a Preliminary Economic Assessment by March 2010.

This study coupled with environmental baseline data and community relation’s activities will help move the White Gold Project closer to a mine development.

As stated at the outset about Underworld President Adrian Fleming’s pride and excitement over the White Gold project, he says he’s cautiously optimistic about the outcome of the engineering studies by JDS Mining but he thinks the project may have already achieved the ounces to begin moving towards a Feasibility Study for an open pit mine.

Again, more proof why Underworld’s White Gold properties in the Yukon are making headlines around the world.