North Bay Resources Inc. (OTC:NBRI) announced that it has achieved continuous operations at its Bishop Gold Mill in California.
The company has completed processing of all remaining stockpiled gold ore following upgrades completed in April and May.
The mill has been operating for up to nine hours per day, resulting in a shipment of 543 pounds of gold concentrate to a refinery partner. Final assays are pending.
Meanwhile, at the company’s Fran Gold project in British Columbia, Canada, North Bay has conducted grade control sampling on 4,200 tons of stockpiled ore, with 29 samples collected at 10-meter intervals, with assays pending.
The company's development work has focused on the zone between trenches B and C, where samples have returned consistent grades of 0.5 ounce per ton. A high-grade sulphide ore body in this area, noted for grades exceeding 1 ounce per ton, is the primary mining target.
A 3,250-ton block has been delineated and flagged for extraction following depletion of current stockpiles.
The company has also re-established drill hole locations from its 2018 to 2019 program and identified a new exploration focus in the East Zone, where earlier drill data from 2001 showed bulk tonnage gold over a 100-meter intercept. The area between this hole and another, along with the ridge and southern extension of the Main Gold Zone, is now being targeted for further drilling and development.
Assays are also pending from additional sampling in the southern portion of the property, where early surface sampling returned results up to 1 ounce per ton.
North Bay highlighted that it has initiated a dual strategy at the Fran Gold Project, continuing to process high-grade surface material while expanding exploration into the East and North-east extensions.
Soil grid re-analysis has revealed North-east-trending gold and copper anomalies, potentially associated with a large geological intrusion indicative of a porphyry-style deposit.