Corvus Gold finds new zone below Mother Lode deposit

Corvus Gold (TSXV: KOR; US-OTC: CORVF) has discovered a new gold mineralized zone below the company’s Mother Lode deposit, located 165 km northwest of Las Vegas in the Walker Lane gold belt in Nevada.

Discovery hole 19-123CT, in the deposit’s Central Intrusive zone, intersected 126 metres grading 2.6 grams gold per tonne, including 15 metres grading 8.9 grams gold per tonne and 25 metres grading 4.9 grams gold per tonne, starting from 377 metres downhole.

“The drill results demonstrate the significant potential of the Central Intrusive Zone,” Jeffrey Pontius, president and CEO of Corvus, said in an interview. “We are now evaluating further core samples from this exciting new target, as well as continuing with our ongoing exploration to expand mineralization at the Mother Lode deposit.”

The Central Intrusive zone (CIZ) is an oxidized intrusive dike swarm 200-300 metres thick that lies 55 metres below the Mother Lode deposit, Pontius said.

“The ground conditions were too tough for our reverse circulation (RC) drilling to get very far into the oxide system, which we suspected had a strong alteration and a decent grade of mineralization.”

Although collared in late-2019, hole 19-123CT was drilled at the end of January and was the first core hole able to cut through the upper oxide zone within the dikes and surrounding carbonates within the CIZ target, Pontius said.

The drill hole also cut through the main sulphide zone, intersecting 38 metres grading 2 grams gold per tonne, including 6 metres grading 2.6 grams gold and 28 metres grading 2.1 grams gold from 246 metres downhole.

Aerial view looking northwest over the Mother Lode deposit in Nevada. Photo Credit: Corvus Gold.

The results from the drill hole and preliminary pit modelling suggest that the mineralization may be amenable to an open-pit design, said Pontius.

“We are now looking at a potentially very sizeable expansion of the current resources at Mother Lode,” Pontius said. “The current resource is around 60% sulphide and 40% oxide material that sits below the sulphide body, the expansion will not only increase the resource estimate but will also likely end up reversing this ratio.”

The Mother Lode deposit contains total measured and indicated resources of 13.27 million tonnes grading 1.72 grams gold per tonne for 733,000 oz. contained gold, with inferred resources adding 2.17 million tonnes grading 1.60 grams gold per tonne for 112,000 oz. gold.

The company has two core drill rigs and an RC rig at the target and plans to drill a further 20-25 follow-up holes, Pontius said. The drill program will cover an area of 500 metres by 200 metres and will test the most productive part of the dike swarm, with the potential of vectoring in on feeder zones.

“The drilling will allow us to create a 3D model for the mineralization, as well as allowing us to design an infill program, which is intended to take the inferred resources and bring them into the measured and indicated category,” said Pontius.

The infill program is slated to start by year-end or early in 2021.

The district, Pontius added, is becoming “pretty interesting and will be a bright spot in 2020,” with both AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE: AU) and its Silicon project and KORE Mining‘s (TSXV: KORE; US-OTC: KOREF) Imperial deposit currently permitting large drilling programs in the area.

At press time in Toronto, Corvus Gold was trading at $2.84 per share within a 52-week trading range of 98¢ and $3.05.

The company has 124 million common shares outstanding for a $352-million market capitalization.