Drill ResultsPer Jeff Clark (@TheGoldAdvisor)
The first set of assays from the big drill hole we’re watching are back. The results from the first 244.4 meters range from 0.9 g/t gold to as high as 7 g/t. These are good, but the important thing is they show gold mineralization is present here.
But this isn’t the critical part of the news. It’s the deeper part of the hole we’re really watching to see if it contains the higher-grade material—and the evidence the geologist team got back from these results hints at that very thing.
There are three important things to note about these results:
- The lower plate rock is what usually contains the higher-grade gold in Nevada. In fact, most of the big Carlin deposits you hear about are mined from lower plate rock—and the final 365 meters drilled here is in the lower plate.
- Arsenic readings go higher as the hole deepens, and elevated arsenic levels are known to be a pathfinder element to Carlin style deposits in Nevada. This is reinforced by the gold results, too.
- The team visually observed that the core is oxidized at depths exceeding 500 meters. This is rare and means that a very strong geological system was required to create oxidation this deep—which is exactly what management wants. It also shows the system is open to the north and east.