Vancouver —
At Nevada Pacific’s wholly-owned Keystone gold project in the Cortez area, Placer must spend US$5 million on exploration over five years to earn a 60% interest in the gold resource, and can earn another 15% by completing a full feasibility study. Nevada Pacific will retain 100% of the base metal and silver rights at Keystone.
The Keystone gold project comprises 338 claims, covering some 6,760 acres, situated 12 miles south and along strike of the Cortez Joint Venture, which is 60% owned by Placer, the operator, and 40% by
The Keystone property is on the northwestern flank of the Simpson Park Mountains, and hosts precious and base metal mineralization that occurs along the edge of the Keystone window, in both upper and lower plate rocks near a northern contact with a granodiorite stock.
The geology is characterized by limestone, shale, and sandstone that have been intruded and skarned by the granodiorite. Historic drilling shows indications of Carlin-style gold mineralization with assays up to 4.3 grams gold in lower-plate jasperoids. Geophysical surveys have recently been completed and have generated a number of drill targets.
The Keystone property, says Placer fits its “strategy to control prospective ground in the district” in line with the company’s understanding of the district geology and the associated metal systems.
Along the Carlin trend, Placer can earn a 60% interest in Nevada Pacific’s wholly-owned Limousine Butte gold project by spending US$4 million on exploration over five years. Similarly, the major can boost its interest to 75% by completing a full feasibility study.
The Limousine Butte project comprises 423 claims covering some 8,460 acres situated in White Pine Cty., about 20 miles due east of Placer Dome’s Bald Mountain mine and 45 miles southeast of
The property covers a large hydrothermal gold system that exhibits alteration features indicative of Carlin-style, sediment-hosted gold deposits, and a large, mineralized porphyry complex is beneath the valley floor in the southwest part of the property.
Porphyry-related gold mineralization grading up to 0.07 oz. gold per ton and skarn-style gold mineralization grading up to 0.2 oz. gold have been reported in past drill results.
More-recent drill results included a 90-ft. section grading 0.18 oz. gold (27 metres of 6 grams gold per tonne).
Nevada Pacific acquired all of Newmont’s rights, title and interest in the Limousine Butte gold project in April 2003. Newmont retains a sliding-scale, net-smelter-return royalty of 1.5% to 2.5% on all production from the property, with an advance payment of US$1 million to be made at the start of commercial production.
Newmont had estimated a mineral inventory for five zones in the central to northern portion of the project area, totalling more than 620,000 oz. of gold at a cutoff of 0.006 oz. gold per ton. (not in compliance with National Instrument 43-101.)
Nevada Pacific and Placer are now partners in three Nevada gold projects, and Placer recently bought about US$1-million worth of Nevada Pacific shares, with the funds to be earmarked for Nevada Pacific’s other gold and silver properties in Nevada and its Magistral gold mine in Mexico.
The two companies’ third gold project in Nevada, BMX, is situated in the Battle Mountain copper-gold district in the northeast, where several high-grade samples were found during surface and underground sampling on the Bluebird target last summer.
Out of 63 samples, 23 returned gold values between 0.010 and 0.099 oz. gold per ton and 16 contained gold greater than 0.1 oz. per ton. Significant silver grades of up to 27.8 oz. were also noted.
Alteration and anomalous soil geochemistry at Bluebird indicates a 500-to-1,600 ft.-wide mineralized system that strikes up to 3,400 ft.
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