Horsethief is located 25km east of the historic mining town of Pioche, Nevada
Alianza Minerals receives approval for expanded drilling at Horsethief project. (Credit: Shutterbug75 from Pixabay)
Alianza Minerals reports that the Caliente, Nevada Field Office of United States Bureau of Land Management for the Ely District, Nevada has accepted the amended Notice of Intent (“NOI”) for the Company’s proposed reverse-circulation (“RC”) drilling program at the Horsethief Gold Property, Nevada. Horsethief is located 16 miles (25 km) east of the historic mining town of Pioche, NV. The current NOI was updated to reflect the expansion of the program to 3000 metres in ten holes from the 1500 metres in the original NOI. The program will be completed as soon as conditions allow. Alianza is committed to ensuring the safety of its employees, contractors and subcontractors and is planning the program to include updated health and safety procedures in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Management is confident that with these refined health and safety protocols and adherence to local and regional governmental recommendations on travel and conduct, the Horsethief RC drill program can be executed safely.
Hochschild Mining (US), a subsidiary of Hochschild Mining PLC (“Hochschild”, LSE:HOC), is funding the program under an option agreement to earn a 60% interest in the project by funding exploration expenditures of US$5 million over 5.5 years.
“The acceptance of our amended NOI allows drilling to take place at Horsethief as soon as conditions permit. With the expanded program we are better able to test the contact of Cambrian and Ordovician-age stratigraphy at the five target areas identified to-date at Horsethief,” stated Jason Weber, P.Geo., President and CEO of Alianza. “This program will focus on the favourable stratigraphy at the Horsethief North and South areas, where prior drilling was too shallow to test the contact. The Thoroughbred, Mustang and Stallion targets will each be tested with at least one drill hole as well.”
Due to the uncertainty around the Covid-19 pandemic, a precise start date for the program cannot be provided at this time, but all preparations have been made to start the program as soon as crews are safely able to access and work at the site. Nevada state and local government updates are being monitored and recommendations incorporated into project timetables and health and safety protocol.
Horsethief Property
Drilling at Horsethief follows a very successful 2019 program that included detailed mapping focussed on lithology, structure and alteration of the prospective limestone and dolostone stratigraphy exposed at Horsethief. Significantly, based on lithological characteristics and fossil identification, this work confidently assigned stratigraphic ages ranging from upper Cambrian to lower Ordovician. This is an important age determination as it corresponds to the ages of rocks hosting other major deposits such as the Long Canyon Gold Mine.
Additionally, the 2019 work program identified a new window of upper Cambrian to lower Ordovician-aged carbonate stratigraphy with significant jasperoid alteration in the northeast portion of the property. An additional 26 claims were staked to cover this occurrence as well as prospective stratigraphy identified in the southern portion of the property.
Horsethief hosts five primary drill targets; four target areas defined by surface exposures of altered carbonate rocks and one target at depth, interpreted from induced polarization (IP) and resistivity geophysical surveys.
Source: Company Press Release