The Sleeper gold mine in Nevada operated as a high-grade open pit from 1986 to 1996, and according to operations reports by its then-owner, Amax Gold, about 54 million tonnes of waste were cast off in dumps over the mine life.
On Feb. 7 Sleeper’s new owners, Paramount Gold and Silver (PZG-T, PZG-N), confirmed that drilling has demonstrated that these waste dumps have resource potential based on favourable assay results from 65 drill holes.
Highlights from the assays include a 45-metre intercept grading 0.558 gram gold per tonne, a 24-metre intercept grading 0.754 gram gold and an 18-metre intercept of 0.963 gram gold. Of the 65 drill holes, 47 returned intercepts with grades above 0.20 gram gold, including 18 holes with significant intervals exceeding 0.40 gram gold.
“We are frankly surprised that some of this material did not go to the leach pads when it was first mined, even given the lower gold prices at that time,” Paramount’s CEO Christoper Crupi said in a statement. He noted that while the company needs to see final results from the leach column tests, he is “increasingly confident of the economic potential” of the material.
Paramount has engaged mining consultants Tetra Tech to prepare a resource estimate for the project’s three waste dumps.
In the meantime Tetra Tech expects to finish a preliminary economic assessment of Sleeper before April. The Sleeper project in Humboldt County consists of the original mine, and numerous concessions that have been acquired since 1996 that make up a 78-sq.-km consolidated land package.
When the Sleeper mine was in production, it produced 1.66 million oz. gold and 2.3 million oz. silver, and Paramount believes, based on historic production records, that less than half of the gold mined at Sleeper was ever recovered.
“The very high-grade veins at Sleeper were milled and thus allowed operations to be very profitable,” the company writes on its website, “without attempting to maximize recoveries from other gold-bearing material such as the heap-leach ore, or sulphide material. A significant number of ounces are above ground on the site.”
Paramount says 49 million tonnes of material exists above ground in the heap leach pads at Sleeper, and that this material is partly covering some exploration drill targets.
Sleeper’s measured and indicated resources stand at 173 million tonnes grading 0.47 gram gold for 2.6 million oz. contained gold and 4.56 grams silver for 25.3 million oz. contained silver. Inferred resources add 82 million tonnes of 0.43 gram gold for 1.1 million contained oz. gold and 3.12 grams silver for 8.2 million contained oz. silver.
Acquired by Paramount in 2010, the Sleeper project is 40 km from the town of Winnemucca.
Paramount shares closed on Feb. 7 at $2.72 within a 52-week range of $1.99–$4.40. The junior has 136.9 million shares outstanding.
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