RE: NEWS Release!!!!! 1.26m oz RESOURCE!
"This high quality initial mineral resource estimate confirms the value of the Pickle Crow gold mine asset," said Kevin Keough, President and CEO. "It provides an excellent foundation for moving the Pickle Crow project forward. The resource comprises 600,000 ounces in underground high grade veins averaging over 9 g/t, cut and diluted, the same material the old timers mined, and 536,000 ounces in new, bulk mineable underground zones averaging close to 4 g/t, with an additional new 126,000 ounce open pit component, all of which remain open for expansion. Combining feed from these various mining styles will allow for considerably more flexibility in future mine design and a potentially much larger operation than the historical operators of Pickle Crow might have imagined.
The near-term goal is to complete a preliminary economic assessment and secure permits for advanced exploration, which will include dewatering of the historic mine workings. Dewatering will allow underground drilling to be completed in support of expanding and upgrading resources and further engineering and other studies beyond the PEA to evaluate the potential for a future renewal of mining operations at Pickle Crow."
Representing the culmination of more than three years of work, this initial resource estimate reflects the digitization and modeling of a large body of data including:
1,430 historical drill holes totaling 87,800 metres;
103 confirmation and exploration PC Gold drill holes totaling 39,134 metres;
27,826 level and stope chip samples from underground development;
>40 km of lateral workings and stopes; and
720 metres of sampling in 45 channels from newly stripped surface areas
This initial mineral resource is restricted to the historical Pickle Crow mine proper and encompasses three areas (Shaft 1, Shaft 3, and Albany Shaft – all interconnected underground) totaling 17 separate mineralized zones, including banded iron formation "BIF" hosted, conduit-style (shear zone) hosted, and high-grade quartz vein hosted mineralization. The detailed breakout by shaft and zone is shown in Table 2, below. The mineral resource does not include mineralized zones located away from the mine such as the Powder House and new Central Pat East discovery, which provide near term avenues for further expanding the total resources present on the property. The mineral resource extends from surface to a maximum depth of 1,500 metres at Shaft 1, 930 metres at Shaft 3, and 370 metres at the shallow Albany Shaft.
Historically the operators at Pickle Crow focused only on the narrow high-grade veins using cut-and-fill mining techniques. These techniques, combined with the $35/oz price of gold then in effect, necessitated a very high (by current standards) cut-off grade of 8.57 g/t gold, resulting in abundant moderate and low-grade resources being left within and proximal to the historical workings. The much higher present day gold price and modern mining techniques allow for the potential economic extraction of these moderate and low-grade resources, along with the remaining high-grade resources. Accordingly, the mineral resource encompasses three different categories: