Mining jewels, gems, and ore: it's 'lode' out time for the Diamond Gold Corporation.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Mining

Mining in Alaska can have huge payouts, but every operation starts with a potential discovery and a lot of work. Anyone with the determination and knowledge can try to make a go of mining in Alaska, much like Ed and Ann Ellis are doing at North Yenlo Hills in the Yentna Mining District.

The Yentna Mining District is located approximately forty miles west of the Parks Highway south of the Alaska Range, eighty-five miles northwest of Anchorage. Looking north from the property, one can see Mount McKinley approximately sixty miles away.

Diamond Gold Corporation has more than 3,000 acres of minable ground in increments of 40 to 160 acres each in an area between the Kahiltna River and the Yenlo Hills. It operates two mines, manages a milling site, and is building a town site. The two mines are Fire Brick Mine and Sable Elegance Mine, which are approximately seven miles apart.

Fire Brick Mine

Diamond Gold announced the opening of Fire Brick Mine, a hard rock lode deposit in the Yenlo Hills, this last March. It's an underground gold, silver, and copper mine. In March, an upper adit at an elevation of 2,489 feet was driven into the vein using overhand stoping methods.

"This year we opened up a lower level following the vein system; that's at a lower elevation so we can have access to it all winter," Diamond Gold Secretary/ Treasurer Ann Ellis says.

That area of Southcentral has a high level of snow up in the hills, so the lower elevation equates to less snowfall, easing access to the mine.

Ed Ellis, president, says, "The Fire Brick veins averages 0.0875 opt [ounces per tonne] gold, 21 ppm [parts per million] silver, and 3 pounds copper per tonne. The upper vein runs a high-grade zone: 0.338 opt gold, 2 opt silver, and 3 pounds copper per tonne. Cobalt and bismuth occur in the veins, and elevated bismuth tracks closely with high gold assays. Sulfide stringers in the rock below veins carry palladium values."

Fire Brick is estimated to contain a total of 107 million tons of sulfide ore; 2 million ounces of gold; 50 million ounces of silver; 300 million pounds of copper, and palladium at an undisclosed amount.

For now, the ore from Fire Brick is being stockpiled, waiting completion of the mill facilities. Ann estimates that the mill site construction will be completed and milling will begin in the winter of 2014-2015. The mill site is approximately three quarters of a mile from the Fire Brick mine.

The initial milling process will incorporate "fine...