Drilling Results And Summer Field Program At South Grass Valley Gold Project
RENO, NV - Nevada Exploration Inc. (NGE) reported results from its recently-completed 4,000-meter core drilling program at its South Grass Valley Project, where, as previously announced, the Company has discovered a large mineralized Carlin-type hydrothermal system, successfully achieving the objective of the Phase 1 drilling program.
By integrating the geologic logging and assay results from the eight, wide-spaced, Phase 1 core holes with the Company’s other geophysical and geochemical datasets, NGE has: (1) confirmed the presence of the critical components required to host a Carlin-type gold deposit (“CTGD”); (2) confirmed that the scale of the geologic system is consistent with that required to host a significant deposit; (3) built a geologic model to guide continued exploration at this otherwise blind, covered target; and (4) designed a program for the next stage of exploration at what NGE considers to be one of the most important projects in Nevada in terms of its potential to host a major new CTGD.
Wade Hodges, NGE’s CEO, said, “If we look at the major Carlin-type systems in Nevada – company-making assets – these deposits are the product of critical geologic components, or building blocks, coming together at the same place at the same time, namely: the right bedrock needs to have been in contact with the right faults and structures that have been used to transport the right hydrothermal fluids that have contained the right concentrations of gold - which in these Carlin-type systems is also found along with a characteristic suite of pathfinder elements.
“Based on this known architecture, if there is a large CTGD at South Grass Valley, we would expect massive volumes of characteristic lower-plate limestone bedrock, within a structurally complex setting, showing evidence of intense hydrothermal alteration, and containing enriched concentrations of gold and associated pathfinders. Establishing that these critical components are present together at South Grass Valley, and importantly that each exists at a scale consistent with those same features responsible for Nevada’s major CTGDs, was the specific objective of the program; and as we’ve announced, this is exactly what we’ve found.
“We have literally uncovered a brand-new, potential Carlin-type district, and as the first exploration company to enter this search space, we believe we have the best opportunity of making a significant discovery here. Having successfully achieved our objective for our Phase 1 program, our job now turns to domaining the Project into smaller, discrete targets and identifying which of these targets provides the best geologic architecture to support higher-grade gold mineralization. Driven by the logging and analyses of the more than 2,500 core samples collected during Phase 1 drilling, we have decoded the bedrock layer cake at the Project, and have integrated this new information with the geophysics, mapping, groundwater, and soil sampling to build a geologic model for the Project including, importantly, structural geology, to drive our next phase of exploration.
With the clear and specific goal of giving us the best information to ultimately select the best targets for follow-up infill drilling, our plan for the coming months is to improve and expand our data coverage at what are now the edges of our geologic model, beyond the limits of the Phase 1 drill holes, by collecting additional step-out core drilling, Scorpion drilling, and soil samples. We believe our progress to date is a good example of how to systematically and responsibly de-risk a covered exploration project, and we look forward to continuing to advance one of Nevada’s largest new Carlin-type projects.”
The Company believes the Phase 1 results suggest the drill holes hit the margins of a large new Carlin-type hydrothermal systems with significant potential to host CTGD mineralization. As is typical at CTGDs, the dominant controls for mineralization at the Project appear to be structural features. The alteration, pathfinder geochemistry, and gold concentrations are most intense within damage zones localized along the primary NNW-SSE structures and potential thrust features. Modeling these alteration and geochemistry contrasts provides evidence for the timing of the different structures relative to the mineralizing event(s), and helps prioritize which structures are most important in guiding the next phases of exploration.
By integrating the improved structural interpretation with the detailed stratigraphic section, the Project’s geologic model is resolving into smaller geologic domains, or blocks of bedrock, defined by similar structural and geologic conditions. By normalizing the geology within the domains, NGE is examining the geochemistry and alteration features within each domain as potential vectors towards mineralization. At this time, while the drill hole coverage at the Project remains limited and wide spaced, the results suggest two center-especially-favorables of mineralization, one to the north close to Goodwin Butte, and another further to the south, closer to the southern fence of Phase 1 drill holes. Within these two centers, where nearby drill holes have intersected similar lithological and structural domains, the alteration and geochemistry also suggest a potential source direction for the hydrothermal fluids in these areas of the Project as coming from the east, at depth.
Having confirmed that the large area covered by the Phase 1 drill holes contains the required geologic features to host a significant CTGD, NGE looks forward to collecting additional drill samples to improve the data density, and to using its updated geologic model to continue to vector towards structural zones associated with the highest concentrations of CTGD pathfinders and gold, and towards places where these mineralized structures intersect especially-favorable host units. These features will define which domains provide the best targets to test for higher-grade mineralization with infill drilling.
In addition to advancing the targets identified within the Phase 1 drilling area, the Company also believes there is significant potential to identify additional high-priority targets by stepping out and extending its data coverage across the district-scale Project. The characteristic CTGD geologic setting (host rocks, structures, alteration, and geochemistry) remains open in almost all directions, including at depth, which parallels the results of NGE’s hydrogeochemistry program, which shows the plume of enriched gold and CTGD pathfinders in groundwater at the Project extends beyond the limits of Phase 1 drill holes.
NGE has built a geologic model to drive the next phases of exploration at the Project. This model domains the Project into smaller target areas, and also suggests significant potential to identify additional targets beyond the area of the Phase 1 drill holes. Building on these results to date, NGE’s objectives for its 2019 field program at South Grass Valley are to: (1) complete a number of additional core holes to add stratigraphic and geologic information beyond the limits of the Phase 1 drill holes; and (2) acquire additional Scorpion drilling and soil geochemistry samples across the Project to select and prioritize targets for later, detailed in-fill core drilling.
With new proprietary technology, NGE has completed the world’s largest groundwater sampling program for gold exploration, collecting approximately 6,000 samples to evaluate Nevada’s covered basins for new gold exploration targets. To advance follow-up targets, NGE has overcome the high drilling costs that have previously prohibited the wide-spread use of drilling as a prospecting tool by developing its Scorpion drill rig, a small-footprint, truck-mounted, small-diameter RC drill rig specifically tailored to the drilling conditions in Nevada’s basins (analogous to RAB drilling in other parts of the world).
The company’s address is Suite 1500, 885 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 3E8, (604) 601-2006, www.nevadaexploration.com.