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 Donlin Creek camp and airstrip with ACMA resource area in background 
Geologic map of the Donlin Creek area (NovaGold Resources, 2002) Click for larger version. Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader Gold mineralization at Donlin Creek is primarily associated with northeast- and northwest-trending Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary felsic dikes and sills that intrude Cretaceous sedimentary rocks of the Kuskokwim Group. Gold occurs with disseminated sulfide minerals, sulfide veinlets, and quartz-carbonate veinlets in both altered igneous and sedimentary rocks over an area measuring 4 miles in length. In recent years, the Donlin Creek Project has been the single largest economic stimulus in the Kuskokwim Region. Since 1995 more than $120 million has been spent on the project. In excess of $2 million per year in direct payroll has been earned by shareholders of Calista Corporation and The Kuskokwim Corporation, who comprise about 90 percent of the Donlin Creek workforce. In addition, significant project expenditures were paid to local and other Alaskan businesses, including joint ventures between Alaska Native and non-native entities. To date, about 1,000,000 ft of drilling, 70,000 ft of trenching and 26 line-miles of ground geophysical surveys have been completed on the property. Additionally, an airborne magnetic survey, alteration mapping, ore deposit modeling, metallurgical testing, a LIDAR survey and 10 years of environmental baseline studies have been completed. Environmental monitoring is on-going in order to meet present and future permitting requirements. A 150-person camp, 17 miles of roads, and a 5,000-ft-long airstrip have been constructed to support the advanced exploration and environmental programs. Extensive engineering studies have evaluated transportation, power and mine design challenges.
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