Gold Investing News
Overview
Premium Exploration is exploring for gold at its district-sized Idaho Gold Project along 30 Km of the Orogrande Shear Zone (“OSZ”) in North-Central Idaho, USA.
The Company’s goal is to discover multiple gold deposits along its 30 km 100% owned property. The Idaho Gold Project hosts five zones of mineralization along the 30 km OSZ gold trend, similar to many large gold belts such as the Carlin Trend in Nevada.
Less than 1% of the +60 km of cross-cutting and parallel, potentially mineralized structures identified on the property have been drill tested to date.
Investment Highlights
- Proven Exploration Strategy Resulting in 100% Drill Success To Date
- Growing Resources in 0.8 km of structure – remains open
- 343,000 oz Au Indicated: (11.8 Mt @ 0.90 g/t Au with 0.5 g/t Au cut-off)
- 879,000 oz Au Inferred: (26.4 Mt @ 1.04 g/t Au with 0.5 g/t Au cut-off)
- 2 Historic Non NI 43-101 Gold Deposits along 15 km Gold-In-Soil and Geophysical Trend
- 57,500 oz gold in 2.6 Mt at 0.8 g/t Au with 0.4 g/t Au cut-off – remains open
- 110,000 oz gold in 4.8 Mt at 0.8 g/t with 0.4 g/t Au cut-off – remain open
- 3 Gold Discoveries to date
- Lower Block Discovery: 2.6 g/t gold over 198 m including 9.2 g/t gold over 29.3 m
- Monday 1st Discovery: 1.4 g/t gold over 38.4 m including 9.4 g/t gold over 4.6 m
- Monday 2nd Discovery: 2.1g/t gold over 20.1 m including 5.5 g/t gold over 6.4 m
- 15 km gold-in-soil trend correlating with 15 km of the main 30 km potentially mineralized structure identified by geophysics
- 18 km of historic Placer mining along strike
- +100 drill ready targets along regional 30 km Gold Trend - 25,000 meter drill program underway
Chief Property
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Idaho Gold Project – Central Idaho, USA
The Orogrande Shear Zone (OSZ) is a significant regional structure lying within Cretaceous Idaho Batholith and Precambrian basement rock. It is an epithermal system and the conduit for alteration and mineralization. Intrusions of Eocene rhyolite, dacite, and trachyte dikes also occur in many locations along the shear zone. Gold mineralization is structurally controlled and occurs in many locations along the entire 30 km length of the OSZ.
The district has seen historical placer and lode mining between the 1860s and 1930s with production estimates of over 8 million ounces and more than 20 historic mines. Modern exploration on the property began in the 1970s.
Because the area is not glaciated, drilling gold-in-soil anomalies led to the discovery of near-surface oxide deposits with shallow, vertical RC drilling. Although near-surface deposits were discovered, potential high-grade structural mineralization at depth was not investigated – Premium’s new geological model.
Exploration on the property ceased following the fall of gold prices in the mid-1990s, but has since resumed upon the resurgence of gold prices. Between 2009 and 2011, the Company has consolidated 172.6 km2 of the former fragmented district.
Premium’s property consists of six zones within the OSZ: the Buffalo Gulch; Deadwood; Friday; Project X and the recently discovered Monday & Lucky Strike Zones.
Premium completed work on the Friday Zone with +13,000m of drilling in 2010 which confirmed the presence of a high-grade structurally controlled gold system within a low-grade envelope. The north-south trending structurally controlled system is associated with a structure known as the Friday Fault.
The Friday Zone hosts a gold resource and remains open along strike and depth: 343,000 oz gold indicated in 11.8 Mt @ 0.90 g/t Au ( 0.5 g/t Au cut-off) and 879,000 oz gold inferred in 26.4 Mt @ 1.04 g/t Au (0.5 g/t Au cut-off). Successful drilling by Premium in 2010 increased the resource from 549,000 oz inferred (15.7 Mt at 1.1 g/t Au with 0.5 g/y au cut-off) to the 343,000 oz au indicated and 870,000 oz inferred resource it is today.
Towards the end of the 2010 drill season, an airborne geophysical survey revealed a major 30 km geophysical structure with several parallel and cross-cutting structures; identifying +60 km of potentially mineralized structure that warrants drilling.
Currently, the Friday-Petsite resource is located along 0.8 km of the Friday Fault structure. The Friday Fault is visible at surface and correlates with 3 km of gold-in-soils and 5 km of the main 30 km airborne geophysical anomaly.
The 5 km anomaly will be explored for potential continuity with step-out drilling in the current 25,000 meter Phase-Four drill program.
Drill results at the Friday Zone during 2010 returned
- 1.5 g/t gold over 330.4 meters including 7.0 g/t gold over 34.4 meters
- 0.5 g.t gold over 226 meters including 2.5 g/t gold over 16.4 meters
- 2.23 g/t gold over 157.9 meters including 3.67 g/t gold over 74.4 meters
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In December 2010, Premium discovered the Monday Zone mineralization associated with the Monday Fault which runs parallel to the Friday Fault. Highlights of recent drilling include 1.4 g/t gold over 38.4 m, including 9.4 g/t gold over 4.6m. Also, in Feb. 2011, a second discovery was made where the Company found 2.1 g/t gold over 20.1 m including 5.5 g/t gold over 6.4 m.
The Monday Fault has a potential continuity of +5 km, similar to the Friday Fault. This zone trends north-south and is open along strike and depth and will be followed up in Phase-Four.
The Deadwood Zone is located in the middle of the Idaho Gold Project along the OSZ and links the Buffalo Gulch Zone (to the north) with the Friday Zone (to the south).
A 12 km gold-in-soil trend has been discovered along the Deadwood and Buffalo Gulch Zones. The gold-in-soil trend covers 8 km of the Deadwood Zone and continues along 4 km of the Buffalo Gulch Zone, correlating with 12 km of the main 30 km “to-be-drill-tested” structure identified by airborne geophysics in 2010.
The gold-in-soil results in the Deadwood Zone are as high as 2.0 g/t gold and comparable to the 3.0 km gold-in-soil trend at the Friday Zone.
Previous operators historically focused on shallow vertical RC drilling along gold-in-soil anomalies to define at-surface mineralization along the OSZ and did not explore for potential high-grade structure at depth.
That strategy originally discovered the non-NI 43-101 compliant 110,000 oz indicated resource at Buffalo Gulch in (4.8 Mt at 0.8 g/t with 0.4 g/t Au cut-off), the Deadwood non-NI 43-101 compliant historic gold deposit of 57,500 oz in 2.6 Mt at 0.8 g/t Au (0.4 g/t Au cut-off) and the previous Friday-Petsite inferred resource of 531,890 oz (15.7 Mt @ 1.1 g/t Au with 0.5 g/t Au cut-off) back in the 1990’s.
Recent IP geophysics at the Deadwood and Buffalo Gulch Zones identified potentially mineralized structures at depth with similar geometries to the Friday Fault. These potential structures at depth correlate with the 30 km airborne anomaly suggesting similarities to the geological model at the Friday-Petsite (resulted in 100% drill success) and the interpretation that both historic deposits are associated with the main 30 km structure
The Deadwood and Buffalo Gulch Zones will be followed up in the Phase-Four drill program targeting the correlating gold–in-soil anomalies and structures identified by geophysics.
https://goldinvestingnews.com/12554/premium-exploration-inc-discovering-an-emerging-gold-district-in-idaho.html