Atna deals Golden Cloud to Great Basin Gold

Vancouver — Hunter-Dickinson-led Great Basin Gold (GBG-V) has inked a deal with Atna Resources (ATN-T) to acquire a 70% stake in the Golden Cloud property in Nevada.

The project is connected to the southern boundary of Great Basin’s Ivanhoe deposit (719,000 tons grading 1.29 oz. gold and 7 oz. silver per ton), being developed by Hecla Mining (HL-N), and is only 6 km from the main Carlin operations of Barrick Gold (ABX-T) and Newmont Mining (NEM-N).

Previous work on the ground identified banded-to-vuggy chalcedonic and opaline quartz with anomalous gold and mercury values. Recent prospecting exposed opaline sinters with visible cinnabar mineralization. The prospective outcrop stretches for 250 metres with subcrop occurring for another 300 metres to the north. Surface sampling yielded up to 34 parts per billion gold in the main body and up to 64 ppb gold moving north. The sinter outcrop is immediately south of a favourable northwest-striking structure identified by gravity geophysics.

The project is at intersection of the northern Nevada Rift (a deep-seated structural alignment of Miocene volcanic and intrusive rocks hosting quartz-adularia epithermal systems containing high-grade gold and silver) and the Carlin trend. It has never been drill-tested. As with the mineralization at Ivanhoe, any economic deposit is likely to occur in Ordovician quartzites that underlie volcanic rocks 15-18 million years old.

North of the promising sinter outcrop is a ridge of highly silicified rocks yielding arsenic values of up to 600 parts per million. The gravity geophysical survey indicates that this area is deeply eroded.

Great Basin can earn a 70% interest in the property by spending $2.5 million on exploration, including at least 30,000 ft. of drilling, and paying an undisclosed amount of cash to Atna. The company also assumes the underlying option and property maintenance payments.