Liberty Gold drills more oxide gold at Black Pine in Idaho

Liberty Gold (TSX: LGD) has released reverse circulation (RC) drill results for nine holes testing the D3 and D1 targets at the company’s Black Pine gold project in southern Idaho. Both zones returned high-grade intervals of oxide gold, with additional infill and step-out work planned.

Drill highlights from the D3 zone, discovered in June, include 8 metres of 1.99 grams gold per tonne starting at 261 metres; 34 metres of 0.82 gram gold per tonne from 200 metres; as well as 81 metres of 0.98 gram gold per tonne from 233 metres.

Based on the release, most of the eight holes drilled into this zone returned multiple intervals of gold mineralization, to a depth of over 300 metres. Cyanide-soluble assays for the zone suggest highly oxidized gold mineralization. D3 is interpreted as a siltstone horizon, directly under the unit host to the D1 and D2 zones at Black Pine. Two drills are working at D3, to both infill and step-out this area.

At the southeast extension of the D1 zone, one drill hole tested a 400-metre gap in drilling between two historic pits and returned 32 metres of 1.06 grams gold from 142 metres and 6 metres of 0.8 gram gold starting at 212 metres. Cyanide-soluble assays also suggest oxidized gold mineralization at this zone.

The D1 and D3 zones lie within a 7.3-sq.-km permit area within the 49-sq.-km site. The permit hosts nine known oxide gold targets. Liberty has tested five of these so far in 2020, and additional assays are pending.

Liberty Gold’s geoscience team in 2019 on a visit to Newmont Mining’s Long Canyon gold deposit in Nevada, from left: Moira Smith, vice-president of exploration and geoscience; April Barrios, project geologist; Randy Hannink, project geologist; and Pete Shabestari, regional geologist. Missing from the team photo: Will Lepore, project geologist. Smith was instrumental in advancing Long Canyon with Fronteer Gold before Newmont bought the company for $2.3 billion in 2011. Credit: Liberty Gold.

“With three RC and one core drill currently operating, we are on track to meet our goal of giving the identified gold system a comprehensive test in 2020, while building resource ounces at the same time,” Cal Everett, Liberty Gold’s president and CEO, said in a news release. Everett added that a portion of the core program includes metallurgical work, in addition to target testing.

RC rigs are also active within the greater permit area. Assays are pending for the Southwest Extension area, southwest of the historic CD pit, and for the D1 Northwest Extension zone, north of the D1 zone. The former includes a 1-sq.-km gold-in-soil anomaly and the latter features areas of anomalous gold in surface soil samples.

Drilling is expected to start shortly on the M zone target, southeast of the historic A pit, as well as on the Rangefront target, 2 km southeast of the past-producing Tallman pit. Liberty is also looking to expand the permit area by 4.6 square kilometres.

Black Pine is a Carlin-style gold system in the northern Great Basin. The past-producing mine generated 435,000 oz. gold between 1991 and 1998 at a head grade of 0.7 gram gold from seven pits. Anomalous gold mineralization in soils has been traced at the 49-sq.-km site over 12 square kilometres.

— This fast news item first appeared in The Canadian Mining Journal.