Piedmont takes on Nevada one JV at a time

Piedmont Mining (PIED-O) doesn’t want it all.

Rather than staking its own claims and investing the time and dollars into developing an exploration staff, the company would rather pay and let someone else run the show.

The Reno, Nev.-based company follows a corporate policy of finding properties with significant gold and silver potential, then optioning or joint venturing them with experienced exploration groups.

Piedmont generally structures deals so that it funds exploration for five years to earn at least a 50% stake in the project.

The strategy has yielded seven different properties in the state with an eighth on the way; it currently has interests in Dutch Flat, Pasco Canyon, Dome-HiHo, Trinity Silver, PPM, Bullion Mountain and the Antelope Ridge project, with the eighth, Willow Creek Gold, waiting to be finalized.

In November last year, Piedmont signed a letter of intent with a subsidiary of Carlin Gold (CGD-V, CNGDF-O) for Willow Creek in Nevada’s Elko Cty.

The property stretches over 15 sq. km along the western range of the Snake Mountains.

“This property has great potential,” Lew Gustafson, Piedmont’s vice-president of exploration said in a statement. “It has all the lithologic and structural elements and signs of intense hydrothermal activity exhibited by the famous Carlin- type gold deposits in Nevada, and yet it is practically untested by drilling.”

The deal is consistent with Piedmont’s policy allowing it to form a joint venture with Carlin in which Piedmont can earn a 51% interest by completing US$3.5 million of exploration work within five years.

Beyond Willow Creek, the company is focused on Dutch Flat, where a reverse-circulation (RC) drilling program of 24 holes totalling 243,135 metres was finished in January. All but four holes hit at least 10 ft. assaying more than 0.1 gram gold per tonne.

The program was highlighted by 44 metres averaging 0.7 gram gold and 49 metres averaging 0.4 gram gold.

The company describes mineralization at Dutch Flat as concentrated in swarms of small quartz veins, which is open both to the north and south.

More drilling is planned for this spring.

Piedmont also has a 5-year option and earn-in agreement on Dutch Flat, this time with Columbus Gold (CGT-V, CBGDF-O).

At Antelope Ridge, 1,000 metres of RC drilling was done on the site last year to test underneath old workings and silver-bearing jasperoid.

gold mine — when Newmont relinquishes its option to earn 60%.

Northumberland contains 28 million tonnes of measured and indicated resources averaging 2.3 grams gold for just over 2 million contained ounces gold. The Carlin-style deposit also holds an additional inferred resource of 4 million tonnes of 3.1 grams gold (about 400,000 contained ounces).

“We got together with Newmont and said ‘look, we’ll focus on this (Northumberland) — you give us this back and we’re going to hit it harder than you were probably going to hit it this year,'” O’Dea says. “And in exchange, you run with Sandman — it’s got some high-grade ounces right at surface, lots of room to expand them, and is close to your existing infrastructure (Twin Creeks), which is underutilized.”

Newmont has also granted the company use of its patented N2TEC flotation process technology. In return, Fronteer has given Newmont first rights to process any ore extracted from Northumberland.

Fronteer also recently reported drill results from its Long Canyon project in northeastern Nevada. Stepout hole 63C cut a 22.9-metre true-width intercept grading 13.4 grams gold, including a 7-metre interval of 30.1 grams gold. The near-surface mineralization occurs in a strongly sheared sequence of iron-altered calcareous sediments and is strongly oxidized.

Long Canyon is under option from AuEx Ventures (XAU-V, AUXVF-O), with Fronteer earning a 51% interest for $5 million in spending over five years. It can earn another 14% by completing a feasibility study.

In mid-2007, Fronteer acquired NewWest Gold through a share offering (0.26 of a Fronteer share for each NewWest share) and acquired its portfolio of 19 mineral projects in Nevada, which includes Sandman, Northumberland and Long Canyon.

Rock chip samples from the jasperoid have averaged 186 grams silver per tonne. Results from the program are still pending.

The company has another 5-year earn-in deal with Carling Gold at the Dome-HiHo property where a second drill program was finished towards the end of last year — results are pending.

Another key property is Trinity Silver, where Piedmont is teamed with AuEx Ventures (XAU-V, AUXVF-O. A second drill program is under way there with the aim of expanding silver resources around a historic open pit that was operated by US Borax from 1987 to 1989 and produced 5 million oz. silver.

And 16 km from Dutch Flat lies another recently acquired property, known as PPM.

The property sits at the north end of the Battle Mountain-Eureka gold trend on the west flank of the Hot Springs Range and has mercury occurrences that are often associated with sediment-hosted gold systems in Nevada.

Piedmont entered an option with Miranda Gold (MAD-V, MRDDF-O) last spring that allows it to earn a 55% interest by spending US$1.75 million over five years on the project.

Year-to-date, Piedmont’s shares have fluctuated from 21-31 and the company has roughly 63 million shares outstanding.