Drill turns at Limousine Butte (May 21, 2002)

Vancouver — Newmont Mining (NEM-N) has launched a fourth round of drilling on Nevada Pacific Gold‘s (NPG-V) Limousine Butte property in east-central Nevada.

Lying 45 miles southeast of Newmont’s Rain mine and 20 miles east of Placer Dome’s (PDG-T) Alligator Ridge operation, the property has long been considered prospective for hosting large gold deposits, so indicative of Nevada’s Carlin trend.

Over the past year, Newmont has focussed on a 3.5-sq.-mile section of the project, where six new target areas of anomalous gold, arsenic, copper, bismuth and tungsten have been identified. The newly outline zones are located in the southern portion of the property, 5-to-8 miles south of the previous drilling. The most promising anomaly covers a 2.7-sq.-km area that returned surface values of up to 0.1 oz gold per ton. The latest program is slated to comprise 7 holes totaling 3,500-to-4,000 metres.

Newmont is funding the program as part of an agreement to earn up to a 70% interest in the project. The major can earn an initial half-interest by spending US$1 million on exploration over four years. A further 20% can be earned by spending an additional US$2 million in years five and six.

Lying in White Pine Cty., 40 miles northwest of Ely, the property covers 15 sq. miles on the eastern portion of Butte Valley, along the western edge of the Cherry Creek range. It is accessible by gravel road from the townsite of Cherry Creek.

The project area is underlain by a Mississippian sequence of sediments consisting of calcareous shale, siltstone, sandstone and massive carbonate. The Pilot shale, Joana limestone and Chainman shale units outcrop on the eastern border of the Limousine Butte property and gently dip to the west. The beds are cut by several ages of normal and thrust faults, and commonly host jasperoid-type alteration.

The first round of drilling, completed in November 1999, consisted of 20 widely spaced holes in an area measuring 3 miles by 0.5 mile. Drilling confirmed the presence of a major hydrothermal system. Silicification, clay alteration and hydrothermal brecciation were encountered over a large area. The alteration zones are near the surface and completely oxidized. Pathfinder geochemistry present in the alteration includes arsenic, antimony, mercury, barium and tungsten. Anomalous intervals of gold were encountered in 13 of the 20 holes, with four of the holes yielding 20- to 50-ft. intercepts ranging from 0.016 to 0.061 oz.

In a second phase of drilling, completed in 2000, Newmont drilled a further 36 holes, following-up on known areas of mineralization and new targets in a 6-by-1-mile segment of the project area. Twenty-one of the 36 holes returned gold intercepts of greater than 0.01 oz.

Last year, the major tested six targets spanning a 4-mile strike length with 15 holes. The best results came from the Resurrection Ridge zone, where hole 46 cut 70 ft. grading 0.14 oz gold. Moving 400 ft along strike, hole 57 cut 35 ft averaging 0.03 oz gold. Drilling on the Pony Express zone returned up to 0.03 oz gold over 25 ft, while the remaining four targets yielded no significant values.