Romarco sets its sights on Battle Mountain Trend

It has long been said that the best place to find a new mine is in the vicinity of an existing or past-producing one. Romarco Minerals (CDN) hopes to prove the adage correct by carrying out several exploration programs within Nevada’s prolific Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend.

Romarco and joint-venture partner Uranerz USA have begun a minimum 8,000-ft. program on the Orbit-Utah Camp property. The 309 claims are close to the Golden Acres pit and the Pipeline deposit, both of which belong to Placer Dome.

Underlying the property is a portion of the Cortez Trend, which consists of a northwest-plunging, antiformal arch developed in Silurian-to-Ordivician-aged clastic and siliclastic units. The partners hope to outline a large-tonnage, Carlin-type gold deposit.

The companies will also drill 5,000 ft. on the 315-claim Nike property, surrounding which are several other deposits. These include Santa Fe Pacific Gold’s Lone Tree and Twin Creeks deposits, as well as the Marigold, Getchell and Pinson showings.

Romarco is also acquiring ground in the northern part of the Carlin Trend, having just negotiated a drilling contract for its wholly owned, 5-claim Midas property. This is surrounded by ground held by Franco-Nevada Mining and Euro-Nevada Mining.

In addition, the junior intends to acquire a 108-claim property known as the Golden Repeat, which is situated 5 miles southwest of its Midas property. To do so, it must spend US$450,000 on exploration and make advanced royalty payments of US$158,000 over three years. The property is subject to a 3.5% net smelter return royalty, which can be purchased at Romarco’s option for US$3 million.

Elsewhere in Nevada, Romarco and Minorca Resources (ME) will form a joint venture to explore the former’s Clipper property. This project will focus on the former-producing Clipper mine, a sediment-hosted, silver-lead-zinc deposit with anomalous gold and copper values. Minorca can earn 50% by spending US$750,000 on exploration over three years.