SEG 45 Final_qx4 - Society of Economic Geologists

EXPLORATION REVIEWS
42 SEG NEWSLETTER No 63 • OCTOBER 2005
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Exploration Reviews (Continued)
Rosemont, Peach Elgin, and Broadtop
Butte deposits. The aggregate resource
is estimated at 5 billion pounds of copper,
with molybdenum credits. Augusta
is commissioning a drilling program
and a prefeasibility study to define
near-surface oxide and deeper sulfide
reserves.
CALIFORNIA
Although the headline read “Gold Mine
becomes Copper Mine” it was not referring
to the Las Vegas gold show where
your favorite property is being pushed
as a uranium opportunity this year,
when it was diamond play last year
and gold target the year before. In this
case, Sutter Gold Mining had $10,000
worth of copper cable ripped off (literally)
from its Sutter Creek property.
The perpetrators apparently went
underground and removed the copper
cable, giving a whole new meaning to
underground copper mining.
NEVADA
White Knight Resources must be given
an award for its effort to obtain free
consulting. They have launched the
Lower Plate Challenge. Anyone can go
to their website and make an estimate
of where the Lower Plate will be
encountered during drilling at any one
of the White Knight properties. Firstplace
prize is a weekend in Las Vegas
and $1,000 cash. Two questions: is the
second place prize two weekends, and
does the Lower Plate refer to the Roberts
Mountains fault or the last dirty dish in
the sink?
Royal Standard Minerals
announced the start of mining at
Goldwedge (Nye County) with an initial
bulk sample of 3,000 to 5,000 tons.
A facility was built at the site to capture
coarse gold, with the finer gold to be
recovered by heap leaching.
Gold Summit continues to drill at
Monte Cristo (Nye County), but several
recent holes failed to find extensions of
mineralization to the northeast, southwest,
and other places along the “controlling
fault structure.” Drilling is continuing,
but the focus has turned to
in-filling the resource. At least one analyst
(now there is a good source) estimates
that the deposit has potential for
a small high-grade reserve containing
0.5 to 1.0 Moz gold.
Agnico-Eagle completed three holes
at NDT Ventures’ Trend property in
Eureka County. The holes encountered
a “strongly altered and potentially mineralized
system” between 1,800 and
2,140 ft deep. Alteration consists of silica
“flooding,” clay, and pyrite with up
to 74 ppb Au. That sounds like a thousand
other places in the Great Basin.
Three drills are now working at
Midway Gold Corp’s Spring Valley
property (Pershing County). Results continue
to be “all over the map.”
Mineralized intervals vary from a few
feet up to about 100 ft with grades in
the low to mid-0.0X opt Au range, with
the occasional quarter- to as much as
one-half ounce of gold per ton.
Castleworth Ventures’ 24 RC holes
in the Black Stallion area of the Pan
project (White Pine County) show
promise for outlining another gold
deposit. Some of the more significant
intercepts include 40 ft of 0.101 opt Au,
85 ft of 0.036 opt Au, and 90 ft of 0.039
opt Au, all starting at, or near, the surface.
The rest of the holes encountered
intervals from 5 to 220 ft with grades in
the 0.01–0.03 opt Au range, containing
narrower intervals of higher grades.
Black Stallion is 1,000–2,000 ft west of
the Pan fault, which hosts the Pan
deposit. Mineralization seems to be
along a north-south structure that is
traceable for at least two miles.
Idaho General Mines filed a Plan of
Operations with the BLM to place the
Mt. Hope molybdenum project (Eureka
County) into production. Idaho General
claims that there are at least 1.3 billion
pounds of recoverable molybdenum at
Mt. Hope. Now all they need is $400
million to develop the deposit, the
molybdenum market stay robust, and
Phelps Dodge not to return Climax to
production.
Canyon Resources terminated its
option to acquire the Hycroft property
(Humboldt County) from Vista Gold
Corp. Canyon completed 33 drill holes
totaling 12,475 ft and produced a new
resource estimate. The new measured
and indicated resource at the
Brimstone deposit is 52.7 million tons
(Mt) with an average grade of 0.019 opt
Au. Part of Canyon’s reason for terminating
the option was “increased costs,
as well as shortage of labor and large
mining equipment.” Too bad they hadn’t
taken advantage of the Nevada
Exploration Futures Market in Rachel to
secure the needed labor and equipment
(see last issue’s comments).
Two RC drill holes intersected highgrade
gold at Gateway Gold’s Crusher
target, about 600 ft northeast of the
North Sammy pit (Elko County). One
intercept is 135 ft of 0.122 opt Au and
the other 25 ft of 0.818 opt Au. More
drilling is in progress to define these
gold-bearing zones.
Quincy Energy released a news
release outlining the results of a sevenhole,
7,700-ft RC program at its Seven
Troughs property (Pershing County).
The three pages explained why a couple
of deep 10-ft intervals of 0.01X opt Au
represent “an interesting low-grade bulk
mineable target … in extensive pyrite
bearing zones.” Really?
UTAH
Palladon Ventures announced that it
would start commercial production of
iron ore from the Comstock/Mountain
Lion iron project (Iron County) in the
fall. Magnetite concentrate will be produced
and shipped to a Chinese purchaser.
Lithic Resources leased the Crypto
zinc property from EuroZinc Mining
Corp. In 1993, Cyprus Minerals estimated
that the deposit contains about 6
Mt of sulfide mineralization with a
grade of 8.6% Zn and an oxide resource
of about 3.1 Mt with an average grade
of 7% Zn.
There is no decay in uranium activity
in Utah. Over 6,000 claims were staked
in the Plateau counties of San Juan,
Emery, Grand, and Garfield since the
start of the year, mostly for uranium.
Constellation Copper Corp. completed
13 drill holes in the newly discovered
Flying Diamond copper deposit.
All of the holes intersected copper mineralization
averaging 83 ft thick with
an average grade of 0.70% Cu. The
deposit is open in all directions, except
to the east-northeast where it abuts the
east splay of the Lisbon Valley fault.
Mineralization is primarily chalcocite,
cuprite, and bornite in sandstone members
of the Cretaceous Dakota and
Burro Canyon Formations. Silver is present
in the range of 0.6 to 82.4 ppm. 1