After switching gears last year to address environmental concerns by local citizens, Atlanta Gold (ATG-T) has released a new resource estimate and technical report on its namesake gold-silver project near Boise, Idaho.
The company is now working toward a combination mini open pit and underground operation with on site milling at the Atlanta gold project site instead of the much larger open pit and cyanide heap leap operation proposed in a 2005 feasibility study.
An updated resource estimate put total measured and indicated resources at almost 3 million tons grading 0.154 oz. gold per ton for 460,000 oz. gold. A cut-off grade of 0.05 oz. per ton was used for resources in the pit (501.6 tons) and a 0.1 oz. per ton cut-off for underground resources (2.5 million tons).
The project also has a significant amount of silver. The mini pit has about 219,700 oz. silver while the underground has about 1.07 million oz. silver at an average grade of 0.357 oz. per ton silver underground.
Changing the mine plan will allow Atlanta Gold to reduce the environmental impact by 95%, the company says, and will also increase expected metal recovery to 90% from 63%.
The technical report, prepared by registered geologist, William Josey, looks at gold and silver resources within the 11,400-foot Atlanta shear zone. The project lies within the historic Middle Boise mining district, which was the site of a gold rush in the 1860s and the state’s leading gold producing region in the 1930s.
The report recommends that Atlanta do another feasibility or prefeasibility study with the new mining strategy and current metals prices to demonstrate the economic viability of the project.
Atlanta Gold, which used to be called Twin Resources, first began exploring the project in 1985, and in that time has done nearly 166,000 feet of reverse circulation
drilling and more than 62,000 feet of diamond drilling.
The report says additional exploration and development work is needed to evaluate the vertical extent of gold mineralization as well as resources east and west of the current resource. The company should also rehabilitate the 900-level adit to go underground and complete drilling that was started there in 1994, then take a bulk sample for metallurgical tests.
Other recommendations include acquiring private property for future tailings disposal, mill facilities, warehouses shops and a camp.
Atlanta Gold shares were up 6¢ to 27¢ per share today on a trading volume of 12,280 shares. The company has a 52-week trading range between 6¢ and $1.44 and 55.5 million shares outstanding.
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