Newmont walks away from Midway (June 10, 2004)

Vancouver – After spending US$3.5 million and drilling over 100 holes on the Midway gold property in Nye County, Newmont Mining (NEM-N) has decided to walk away. The property is situated near Tonopah, roughly midway between Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Newmont terminated the joint venture it struck up with Midway Gold (MDW-V) back in September 2002 after Midway first reported large chunks of gold in some of the veins in the drillcore it pulled from the property. However, it looks as though the extent of the mineralization hasn’t met up with Newmont’s expectations.

Newmont’s last round of drilling was designed to test for deeper bonanza veins by angled holes beneath and around the Enterprise, Cross Fault, Nautilus, 121, and South Discovery zones. The major completed 22 angle holes in the final phase including 15 HQ core tails (5,874 feet) and 7 RC holes (10,195 feet).

Midway reported the assays for the 19 holes received so far and the Enterprise zone failed to turn up any significant intercepts in the five holes drilled there.

The recent drilling turned up significant intervals in the other zones with up to 9.3 grams gold per tonne over 3.1 metres from a depth of 76.2 metres in the Cross Fault area; 15.3 grams gold over 4.7 metres (including 164.7 m over 1.1 metres) from 147 metres, 4.6 grams gold over 11.3 metres from a depth of 214 metres, and 1.2 grams gold over 57.9 metres from 238.7 metres downhole in the 121 Zone; and 12.2 metres grading 1.4 grams gold from 51.8 metre depth in the South Discovery zone.

Newmont will be returning the information generated by its exploration efforts to Midway Gold which said in a statement that it will be reviewing the data and deciding on the best route for advancing the project from here.