While Premier Gold Mines (PG-T) is busy making a name for itself through three projects in northwestern Ontario, it isn’t too busy to prove up a site in northwestern Mexico.
The Thunder Bay-based company announced assay results from its initial 32-hole drill program at the Santa Teresa project in Baja California, Mexico.
Results were highlighted by one hole hitting 21.1 grams gold per tonne over 1.35 metres and another striking 16.68 grams per tonne over 3.1 metres.
Premier says drilling confirms multiple high-grade veins up to 260 metres along strike from the historic Princessa Gold Mine. The deposit is open in all directions.
Santa Teresa sits adjacent to and on strike from the Princessa Mine – a mine that pulled earth down to just 110 metres, and whose ore body was known to extend close to the northern boundary of the Santa Teresa Property.
Princessa was part of the 16-km long El Alamo district, an area where technological and political circumstances halted mining back in the early 1900s.
Premier is joint-ventured with Sutter Gold Mines (SGM-V) at Santa Teresa with Sutter conducting the drill program.
Premier can earn a 50% interest in the project by issuing 100,000 of its shares to Sutter and putting roughly US$1.5 million into exploration. It can then move up to a 65% interest by paying US$500,000 to Sutter and spending another US$4 million on exploration.
The project has road access and sits roughly 250 km south of San Diego.
News of drill results from Santa Teresa came on the heels of an exploration update for its northwestern Ontario projects issued by the company on Jan. 5.
Premier says it will spend roughly $15 million on exploration in the area making it one of the largest injectors of exploration capital in the region.
Those plans are to include resource definition drilling at its Hardrock and Red Lake gold projects.
Hardrock – which sits in the heart of the Beardmore-Geraldton Greenstone belt — is joint-ventured with Roxmark Mines (RMK-V) with Premier able to earn a 70% interest.
The project will see the lion’s share of the exploration budget with over 50,000 metres of drilling planned to get underway this month.
Hardrock hosts multiple historical mines which all together put out more than 2 million oz. of gold between 1938 and 1968.
Premier says the mined zones remain open at depth.
The Trans-Canada highway, Trans-Canada pipeline, and major power lines all run through the center of the property.
The next project in order of priority is Rahill-Bonanza which sits at the centre of the Red Lake district.
The project is joint venture with Red Lake Gold Mines — an affiliate of Goldcorp (G-T, GG-N).
The 2009 drill program calls for both delineation drilling near the workings of the Wilmar Gold Mine, and deep drilling to test the primary deep targets on the Properties.
Wilmar was a near-surface historical mine that closed in 1971.
The final project to see exploration dollars is Premier’s 100%-owned PQ North Property near Goldcorp’s Musselwhite gold mine.
Premier’s faith in the project has been bolstered by Goldcorp’s announcing that gold mineralization at Musselwhite extends north with intersections on structures trending close to PQ North.
Goldcorp’s results include a drill intercept of 15.5 grams per tonne across a true width of 4.5 metres.
Musselwhite has turned out over 2 million oz of gold to date.
In Toronto on Jan. 7, Premier shares closed down 3¢ to $1.77 on 130,000 shares traded. The company’s shares have moved between $3.14 and $1.05 over the last 52 weeks and it has roughly 78 million shares outstanding.
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