Program At The South Grass Valley Project

RENO, NV - Nevada Exploration Inc. (NGE) reported on its 2021 core drilling program at its South Grass Valley Carlin-type gold project. During May, the Company completed the first hole of the program, SGVC012, to a final depth of 1,405 meters, successfully sampling the lower-plate Clm unit that hosts NGE’s primary East Golden Gorge target. The targeted Clm unit in the bottom part of the hole contained some of the most intense Carlin-type alteration seen to date at the project (in many places being reduced to a sulphidic paste), which based on XRF analysis includes a 96-meter-thick interval containing highly anomalous Carlin-type pathfinders. The upper part of the hole encountered Carlin-type alteration and pathfinders indicative of a secondary zone of potentially mineralizing Carlin-type hydrothermal fluid flow through the Roberts Mountains and Hanson Creek Formations. Structural and geologic data collected from the hole continue to support significant district-scale structural complexity along the Water Canyon corridor.

During June, NGE completed sampling the SGVC012 drill core, and submitted samples from the entire hole for lab analysis. For the second hole of the program, SGVC013, NGE moved the drill rig 3,500 meters to the south, to the eastern end of the Company’s southern fence of drill holes. SGVC013 is presently at a depth of 447 meters, and approaching the alluvium-bedrock contact – drilling is currently on hold pending availability of drilling personnel, and is expected to continue shortly. Since completing its June 2021 financing, NGE has begun negotiations to add a second deep-capacity core rig to the program and has strengthened its Nevada-based logging team with the addition of a new exploration geologist.

CEO, Wade Hodges, said, “It’s been an exciting couple months logging what is now the deepest hole on the project, and this first hole of 2021 has already significantly de-risked our target concept at East Golden Gorge. All of our work to date had pointed to the Clm unit effectively providing the dominant fluid superhighway for the mineralizing Carlin-type fluids to move laterally through the district, and quite simply, our goal with this current drilling program is to test whether our eastward down-dip projection of this superhighway is correct, and whether it supported the type and volume of hydrothermal fluid flow necessary to support a globally significant new gold deposit.

“Drilling more than 1,000 meters to get down to our target in this part of the project took fortitude, especially through the middle part of the hole which had seen very little in the way of any hydrothermal fluid flow, but as predicted by our geologic model, once we approached our target zone, the rocks began to change. From 1,150 meters onwards, the Clm unit contained some of the most intense Carlin-type alteration seen to date at the project, in many places reduced largely to a sulphidic paste, and based on our XRF analysis we can confirm that this massive zone of alteration contains characteristically high concentrations of Carlin-type pathfinders. Given the irregular geometries of Carlin-type gold deposits we’re not betting on any single hole of this program, but with SGVC012 we most certainly hit our targeted superhighway, which represents a major step in validating our East Golden Gorge target concept.

There is still more to learn from SGVC012 and we’re continuing to collect additional structural data; and while we integrate this data at the north end of the project, for our next hole, SGVC013, we’ve moved the rig to the south end to complete a similarly deep hole to test our targeted Clm unit where this favorable geologic setting and the Water Canyon structural corridor are squeezed along the margin of the Grass Valley Stock.

In terms of our overall progress with the program so far, we are pleased to have been able to complete our first hole to its target depth through some typically challenging and deep Carlin-type drilling conditions, though securing the continuity of experienced personnel has presented some challenges on this second hole. The rig is currently on a break while our contractor assembles additional personnel. We had been running three crews, such that the rig was drilling continuously, but once drilling resumes we expect we may need to switch to a schedule that includes days off, which is the schedule many of the rigs in the state are employing. To help ensure we maintain momentum at this important stage of the project we’ve begun the process of contracting a second drill rig, as well as strengthened our Nevada-based logging team with the addition of a new exploration geologist.”