It’s the season for drilling core samples. Tectonic Metals officially launched its most ambitious exploration campaign yet at the Flat Gold Project on Monday, starting a multi-rig drill program that could be a turning point for gold development in Alaska.
The 2025 Phase One drill program is deploying three drill rigs — two already on-site and a third en route — to the expansive 99,840-acre project located on predominantly Native-owned land managed by Doyon, Limited, one of Alaska’s largest Native Regional Corporations and Tectonic’s second-largest shareholder.
The Flat Gold Project is 25 miles north of the Donlin Gold Project in southwestern Alaska. On Native-owned land belonging to Doyon, Ltd., it is in the Kuskokwim Mountains, about 290 miles from Anchorage and 350 miles southwest of Fairbanks.
The campaign represents a major step toward unlocking the full potential of what Tectonic says is a “tier-one,” intrusion-hosted, free-milling, and heap-leachable gold system. Located near the Donlin Gold Project, one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in the world, the Flat Gold Project is positioned to become a significant player in Alaska’s mining future.
The history of placer gold mining at Flat Creek is part of the broader gold mining legacy of the Iditarod region. Flat Creek is tributary that has been a major site for placer gold production, contributing to the area’s notoriety as one of Alaska’s most productive gold regions, with discovery spanning back to 1908 by prospectors John Beaton and William Dikeman along the Iditarod River. Sometimes this gold mining timeframe is referred to as “The Last Great Gold Rush” in Alaska.
The Iditarod District, including Flat Creek, has produced over 1.5 million ounces of placer gold, making it one of Alaska’s most prolific gold-producing regions. Flat Creek alone is credited with contributing a substantial portion of this total, with historical records indicating over 650,000 ounces of placer gold mined from its gravels.
This figure supports Tectonic Metals’ recent exploration, which identifies Flat Creek as one of Alaska’s most prolific placer gold-producing creeks.
Central to the season’s work is the Alpha Bowl, a high-grade, near-surface oxide gold target that was first drilled in 2024 and is interpreted as the bedrock source of over 650,000 ounces of historic placer gold from Flat Creek.
This breakthrough confirmed Alpha Bowl as part of the Chicken Mountain intrusive system and revealed bonanza-grade gold potential.
The company reported that drill hole CMR24-026 returned impressive intercepts.
“This is our strongest indication yet that we are drilling into the heart of a fertile gold system,” said Tony Reda, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Tectonic Metals. “With two rigs already turning and a third on the way, Phase One is just the beginning.”
The first drill program will generate technical data to support Tectonic’s first mineral resource estimate and a future preliminary economic assessment. Drill targets include deeper structurally controlled feeder zones, oriented core collection, and additional metallurgical sampling.
At Chicken Mountain, which is part of the broader Flat system, mineralization has been confirmed to a depth of 1,066 feet over a 1.86-mile strike length. Metallurgical tests have already shown 96% gold recovery from oxidized material and 91% from non-oxidized samples, confirming the viability of heap leach processing.
Tectonic is also turning its focus to Golden Apex, a smaller intrusion-related gold target with strong placer gold associations and geophysical markers similar to those that led to the Alpha Bowl discovery.
To support the Vancouver, BC-based company’s rapid advancement, Tectonic granted 3.86 million incentive stock options to directors, officers, and staff. The options are priced at $0.75 per share (Canadian) and vest over 18 months.
“The 2025 drill program is designed not just to expand known zones but to lay the foundation for a future mining operation,” said Reda. “From Alpha Bowl to Golden Apex, we are leveraging every tool—technical, financial, and strategic—to transform Flat into one of North America’s great gold stories.”
For maps, drill cross-sections, and additional project details, visit www.tectonicmetals.com.
Drill, baby, drill!
More royalties for the state government from our mineral rights. The government can always find ways to spend money, if the PFD is abolished and Alaska developed all of its resources where would that leave residents?
How much (%) does the State get in royalties from a mine?
If they find something, just wait for the Usual Suspects to start bellowing “NO!!!!!!!!, you can’t do that!!! You might disturb a mosquito hatch in a puddle!!!” No development anywhare!!!EVER!!!!
we need to leave the pioneers that discovered these projects something the families that lived here before statehood have got nothing we need to rewrite the alaska native claims settlement action left nonnative pioneer Alaskans out of the deal wè got screwed
#TribesThatBribe have no protestations or fictitious claims that sustenance and sacred culture disruption from a massive mining project such as this.
Wonder why not?
They own the claims and profit from it. No need for regulatory claim jumping like their attempts to steal the Au from the IPOP Project.
Not a peep from EarthJustice on this ….
No economy no anything
Resource extraction helps support the economy a strong economy supports welfare programs, Medicare programs, environmental programs retirement programs etc. visit a socialist country a view the environment. It takes a strong economy to benefit people and the environment