North Bay Resources Inc. (OTC:NBRI) CEO Jared Lazerson provided more detail on the recent Mount Vernon Gold Mine acquisition that the company executed earlier in July.
Work begins next week with channel sampling across both faces of the 150-foot tunnel. Lazerson expressed optimism about the project, noting the area is largely undeveloped virgin ground, ready for significant mining activities.
Proactive: You're here with an operational update and to let everyone know that crews are about ready to start going underground at that mine. Before we get to that part, could you remind everyone a little bit about Mount Vernon and what you're planning on doing?
Jared Lazerson: Mount Vernon was recently acquired. It's located in Sierra County, to the west of Lake Tahoe. We have a 100-ton-per-day gold mill in Inyo County, south of Lake Tahoe. The mine's proximity to the mill makes for a very nice integrated operation.
Are the crews now preparing to go underground and start getting some work done?
That's correct. We've just completed or are finalizing our operational plan, and we will have crews underground next week to start sampling and channel sampling. A lot of this is confirmatory work since the acquisition. We will do channel sampling across the face; there's a north and south face. The tunnel runs the entire length of the channel, about 150 feet, so we'll sample both sides of the tunnel and a bit to the vertical extent to determine the height. It's limited to the height of the tunnel, obviously, but we'll do some panel sampling in the main zone.
From assays done in 2023, the main zone is showing more than one ounce per ton, so we're targeting this area. We'll conduct a mini bulk sample in that area on both sides. This is really in preparation for proper bulk mining. We'll begin to lay out the mining zones based on the results, which we should have within a few weeks. This is setting the stage for bulk mining. I don't want to put a date on it, but things are moving quickly. Our initial team will be underground next week, and we will have a very good idea of how things look. We already have a sense of where we're going with this, but now we're setting the stage for bulk mining, which will be the next phase after our initial work underground next week.
Had this been the plan all along when you acquired the mill—to find something that you could utilize the mill with?
Yes, I couldn't have put it better myself. The plan was to acquire the mill, knowing there's a lot of ore in the area and having the backstop with our original predecessor, Canadian operations. We knew we had high-grade gold that could be shipped. The idea was to focus on California, particularly the original Gold Rush area in Sierra County, and just over the line in Nevada, which is also a main gold trend.
I'd add that the Mount Vernon mine is next to the Ruby mine, which was, for 100 years, the richest mine in North America. The block channel from the Ruby mine, which was the highest grade, continues into Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon is upstream from the Ruby mine, which is ideal because the Ruby mine was so rich that Mount Vernon was never fully developed. There was some mining done a long time ago, but it was mainly exploratory.
The previous owner had put in a tunnel and done all the assaying, which is why we picked it up. We're very optimistic because this is all virgin ground—there hasn't been any significant mining done there. The assays are almost identical to the same channel that was mined for almost 100 years at the Ruby. It's looking like a good acquisition. Time will tell, but that time is starting next week.
Quotes have been lightly edited for style and clarity