McEwen Mining has commenced new drilling program as part of ongoing $5m exploration program at the Gold Bar Property, located along the Battle Mountain - Eureka Gold Trend in Nevada, US.
Image: A gold mineral. Photo: courtesy of carlos aguilar/Freeimages.com.
McEwen’s 2018 exploration goals are to grow known deposits and make new discoveries that will contribute to extending the life of the Gold Bar Mine. From Nov 2017 to Q2 2018 drilling focused on expanding known resources and better delineating the planned open pits. Seventy-nine new drill holes totaling 52,700 ft. (16,000 m) of drilling was completed since the last resource estimate in 2015.
The Gold Bar resource update resulted in an increase of 92,000 ounces of Indicated resources, and an additional 82,000 ounces of Inferred resources, mostly in the Gold Pick and Gold Ridge areas (see Table 1). The increase was attributable in part to the additional drilling and also to economic factors such as higher gold recoveries and lower waste mining costs.
During the first half of 2018, multiple exploration methods including geophysical surveys, soil and rock geochemical sampling programs, satellite data acquisition, and ‘boots on the ground’ geologic mapping contributed data to a new geologic model that revealed high quality drill targets defined by overlapping anomalies. Three exploration and development targets are covered in this release: Cabin Creek, ML, and Gold Bar South.
“We are entering a very interesting time for Gold Bar exploration. For the first time we have assembled all the key information that allows us to develop a robust geological understanding and define new high quality drill targets. We are initiating drilling to target additional oxide mineralization to extend the mine life, and to explore for deeper Carlin-type gold discoveries. We believe Gold Bar hosts all the essential attributes that are characteristic to large Carlin-type gold deposits and look forward to this new and exciting phase of exploration,” stated Sylvain Guerard, Senior Vice President Exploration.
Cabin Creek
The Cabin Creek area lies along an anticline cut by a large fault zone. It is one of multiple targets along the anticline, which extends for more than 5 miles (8 km) across the Gold Bar Property. Exploration work to date has extended the prospective target area by more than 24 acres (10 hectares). Drilling commenced in mid-August, targeting oxide extensions of the gold mineralization along strike and down dip. A total of 5 holes are currently planned to depths averaging 1,000 feet (305 m).
ML
The ML target area lies approximately 4,000 feet (1.2 km) southeast of the Cabin Creek deposit. ML is a completely new and untested, shallow, oxide gold target area defined by geophysical, geochemical, and geological targeting anomalies. A drilling program of six reverse circulation rotary holes is anticipated to start in early September. It is also considered a good area for deep exploration targeting higher-grade gold mineralization similar to other Carlin-type deposits in Nevada, such as Barrick’s Cortez Hills or Gold Rush.
Gold Bar South
The Gold Bar South deposit (formerly known as Afgan) lies approximately 3.5 miles (5.7 km) southeast of Cabin Creek. The area remains open at depth and along strike. The geology of the near-surface mineralization at Gold Bar South suggests the potential for stacked Carlin-type targets in units below the known resource. It will be the target of infill drilling, and deeper exploration drilling. The program, beginning in October, consists of 22 infill holes, 5 oriented core holes and 5 metallurgical core holes for a total of 5,000 ft (1,500 m).
McEwen has the goal to qualify for inclusion in the S&P 500 Index by creating a profitable gold and silver producer focused in the Americas. McEwen’s principal assets consist of: the San José mine in Santa Cruz, Argentina (49% interest); the Black Fox mine in Timmins, Canada; the El Gallo Fenix project in Mexico; the Gold Bar mine in Nevada, currently under construction; and the large Los Azules copper project in Argentina, advancing towards development.
McEwen has a total of 337 million shares outstanding. Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner, owns 24% of McEwen.
Source: Company Press Release