US-based Gold 50 has picked up the high-grade historic White Caps Mine in Nevada – which produced more than 125,000 ounces at around 30g/t gold.
Mined ore grades ranged from 33g/t to 79g/t gold over 6m to 9m widths and grades increased with depth, with the cross-cut on the lowest mine level (400m) assayed 10m at 94g/t.
The company is confident there’s potential for thicker zones of mineralisation around historic workings as zones containing <10g/t gold which were often ignored and not mined.
Plus, historical soil geochemistry indicates White Caps is part of a large mineralised system as it is within a gold-arsenic-mercury anomaly that is 1.2km-long; and a gold-silver soil anomaly that is 8km long.
Gold 50 (ASX:G50) now has the exclusive option to purchase the Project over a 10-year term (from execution of the Agreement) by making staged payments up to US$10m – the first being US$500k.
The vendors retain a 2.0% net smelter return (NSR) royalty.
Premier gold mining jurisdiction
The White Caps project area covers 10 km2 with 28 patented claims and 74 unpatented claims, and MD Mark Wallace said it’s a unique opportunity to secure a poorly tested Carlin-style gold system that hasn’t been actively explored since the 1990’s.
“The White Caps Mine is a significant historical Nevada gold mine located only 15km south of the Round Mountain Gold Mine owned by Kinross which still has ore reserves of 3 million ounces after producing more than 15 million ounces,” he said.
“Nevada is the premier gold mining jurisdiction as it produces around 5% of the world’s gold and it is notable that Tier 1 mining companies such as Freeport, Rio Tinto and Newcrest have all increased their exploration in Nevada over the past year. Freeport drilled the White Caps Project during the early 1980’s.
“White Caps is the most prospective property within Nevada’s Manhattan Mining District and Gold 50 has a unique opportunity to secure a poorly tested Carlin-style gold system where ore grading more than an ounce per tonne was mined.”
Pic: White Caps is the most prospective property within Nevada’s Manhattan Mining District
Next steps
G50 has two exploration targets for the project. Exploration Target 1 is at open-pittable depths and is based primarily on historical drilling ranges from 110,000 to 290,000 ounces at grades ranging from 2.5 to 3g/t gold.
And Exploration Target 2 is based primarily on unmined mineralisation in underground workings and ranges from 50,000 to 270,000 ounces at grades ranging from 7 to 25g/t gold.
The plan is to commence geophysical and soil geochemistry programs as well as integrate existing datasets to refine the geological model before drill testing.
Depending on the results of the extensional and exploration programs, the company is planning infill drilling to allow a maiden Mineral Resource to be estimated.
This article was developed in collaboration with Gold 50 Limited, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
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