Historic photo of the Homestake Mine, South Dakota, around 1900. Source: Detroit Publishing Co., United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs.
Homestake Mining was the first mining company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and was one of the most important gold producers in the United States for more than 100 years. The traditional company merged with Barrick Gold at the end of 2001 and thus disappeared from the stock ticker.
The following year, the eponymous Homestake Mine in South Dakota - the deepest and largest gold mine in North America - was permanently shut down. Current production costs made the mine uneconomical given gold prices at the time around $ 300 / ounce. Nobody could have known at the time that the gold price should more than quintuple in the next 10 years!
The discovery of a smaller version of Homestake and the revitalization of the famous American gold district would be an absolute sensation these days and would not only make geologists' hearts beat faster, but also the hearts of investors involved! A team of experienced geologists and engineers, all of whom experienced the Homestake Mine in their heyday, are now planning exactly that.
Mineral Mountain Resources (ISIN: CA6028965086, TSXV: MMV) iscontinuing the exploration work of the Homestake Group in the southern part of the Homestake District after more than 25 years of interruption using the latest technology. The resumption of Homestake has long been prepared. Over the past six years and at a cost of over CAD 10 million, the Mineral Mountain Team has consolidated fragmented claims around Homestake. Today the Canadian junior is by far the largest claim holder south of the historic Homestake Mine.
About 20 km south of Homestake Mine - once North America's largest gold mine - is Mineral Mountain Resources' Rochford project.
These geological patterns suggest that a Homestake is not an isolated case
Why does Mineral Mountain assume that another gigantic gold deposit could be hidden in the ground about 20 to 25 km south of the famous American Homestake Mine? To answer this question, it is worth taking a brief excursion into the geology and history of this unique region.
In the Homestake district, all gold ever mined is associated with banded iron formations (BIF). Even the old miners knew exactly that the gold-containing BIFs form ore bodies that drop at an angle of 20 to 45 degrees. Even with the methods of the time, it was relatively easy to follow them on the surface and underground.
As can be seen from the approx. 125-year production history of the Homestake Mine and from similar geological data in the surrounding area, the ore bodies are always particularly wide and rich in gold where they coincide with geological shear zones . Homestake called these recurring declining BIF structures "ledges".
I nsgesamt eleven of these Ledges has closed Homestake. The following graphic shows the "Main Ledge", which slopes downwards from the surface and produced more than 19 million ounces with average contents of 8.37 grams per ton of gold. Ledge 9 produced an impressive 9.5 million ounces of gold at an average of 9.05 grams per ton.
A recurring pattern is the particularly wide, gold-containing structure at depths between 700 and 1,200 meters. Half of all gold mined in the region comes from such “centroids”.
Mineral Mountain chose the concessions in the Rochford Gold District not at random, but among other things according to their potential for such gold-rich Centroid structures. Historical data was transferred to the digital age, IP measurements from the air were carried out for the first time in the project's history, and 3D models of the region were developed, which were decisive for the selection of the most promising concessions.
In the Rochford Gold District, the area now controlled by Mineral Mountain south of Homestake, mining activity had been active since the early 1900s. Gold production and most of the historical exploration mostly took place near the surface. The Homestake corporation has long suspected that the striking geological similarity of the ledges of the southern mines, with the largest gold mine in North America just a few kilometers away, could mean that another gigantic Centroid ore body could be dormant right in front of its nose in extension of the known structures.
In 1986 and 1987 (the year I was born) Homestake therefore had half a dozen deep holes, up to 1,500 meters long, drilled from the standby mine, extending the strike direction. In fact, at that time, the suspected continuation of the gold-bearing BIF structure was encountered at two points, 750 meters apart. Despite the technical success, the exploration on the standby project was stopped at the time. Instead, it focused on exploration work closer to the Homestake Mine.
No drilling has been carried out in the Homestake-South area since 1997. Kilometers deep, "blind" drilling from the surface, such as that which Homestake had carried out in the 1980s, would still be extremely expensive and risky today. But Mineral Mountain's management had a groundbreaking idea. I have been analyzing the precious metals and raw materials sector for several years, but I have not yet come across anything comparable ingenious.
At the end of 2019, Mineral Mountain began drilling an unconventional well that was borrowed from oil and gas exploration. Starting from the standby mine, the company is driving a 1,600 meter long horizontal well at an angle of 45 degrees to a depth of 1,000 meters. Starting from the well-known gold-rich BIF ore bodies of the standby mine, the drilling follows the assumed course of the ledge downwards along the shear zone.
The horizontal well prepares an underground "X-ray" over the entire length
Drilling results from the directional horizontal well should be published soon and could provide initial indications as to whether the two BIF ore bodies drilled in the 1980s are connected underground. Should the drilling provide evidence of a large Centroid ore body, the stock would likely face a massive revaluation in the context of the similarities to Homestake.
But the upcoming drilling results are not really that important. Immediately after completion of the horizontal drilling, Mineral Mountain wants to pull a sensitive electromagnetic measuring head, from the lower end of the borehole over the entire length of 1,600 meters, to the surface. As with an oversized endoscope, electromagnetic (EM) recordings of the standby ledge are to be made.
Mineral Mountain's management around CEO Nelson Baker and the company's three geologists are all familiar with Homestake from their previous activities. With decades of experience in local geology and historical data for the Rochford Gold District, the team knows exactly what to look for.
The areas with the richest gold deposits in previous deposits on Homestake had particularly high concentrations of arsenopyrite. These particularly conductive iron-arsenic sulfides can be detected particularly well in EM analyzes. The 1,600 meter long EM measurement will provide a 3D model of the standby ledge and even if the hole does not directly cut a large Centroid ore body, the team will have an invaluable model to target future "branch holes" in a targeted and cost-effective manner perform.
Bird's eye view of the current horizontal hole (ST19-011). The drilling is carried out from the standby mine along the known shear zone and is to end at a depth of 1,000 meters.
The Homestake Group could have only dreamed of such technical possibilities more than 30 years ago. Incredible but true: Today, a gold junior like Mineral Mountain can generate exploration results that a few decades ago - with the technology at that time - would have required the deep pockets of a much larger company. Not only private investors, but also established gold companies are currently eagerly following Mineral Mountain's progress.
The current exploration program based on the standby mine already offers potential for the discovery of a new multi-million ounce gold deposit. Nevertheless, it is only the starting signal for Mineral Mountain. The company has already classified at least five other "ledge-style" destinations within its considerable land package with high priority. We therefore recommend putting Mineral Mountain on the watch list. I bought stocks and threw my hat in the ring for Homestake 2.0.
Anyone interested in the Mineral Mountain Resources share can find the share on the Canadian Toronto Stock Exchange (TSXV) under the symbol MMV. The ISIN is: CA6028965086. There is more information on the company homepage and on goldgeldwelt.de.
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