The precious metals credentials of Nevada are in little doubt, which is probably why much of the US state has been vigorously picked over by mining companies.
So, for an exploration firm starting out there, being a little creative and focusing on opportunities which were skirted over or overlooked in the past can be the key to success.
This is what new kid-on-the-block Infield Minerals (CVE:INFD) has sought to do, and with its M1 gold project, which lies 75 kilometres (km) north of Ely in White Pine County, it believes it could be onto a real winner.
"It's super exciting," says Evandra Nakano, CEO of Infield Minerals, a firm which was established around two years ago and floated on the Toronto Stock Exchange in June this year.
The 2,900 hectare (Ha) project is home to the sort of geology (continental shelf rocks to put it simplistically), which was largely overlooked by explorers in the past, because they were more interested in - and flocked to - the Carlin-style gold systems within continental slope rocks further west.
High profile discoveries
That has begun to change, however, in the last few decades, with two high-profile discoveries in the area, now dubbed the 'Long Canyon Trend'.
These finds were the Long Canyon deposit, now mined by Nevada Gold Mines (a Barrick and Newmont joint venture), with 2015 probable reserves put at 16.3 million tonnes at 2.28 grams per ton (g/t) gold, and the Kinsley Mountain deposit, owned by New Placer Dome Gold Corp, estimated last year to host higher confidence indicated resources of 418,000 ounces of gold at 2.63 g/t.
What the Kinsley Mountain deposit has in common with M1 geologically, explains Nakano, is that the mineralization is found near large-scale, fault structures.
Now Infield has the chance and wants to bring new exploration technologies to M1 to make similar finds.
"There are lots of structures all across the (M1) property so that gives us the potential for a very sizeable system," says Nakano.
"The old operators of the late eighties and early nineties, they had a different target model in mind, and so we have this great opportunity to target a new model that is aligned with what the other discoveries in recent decades have made," she adds.
Infield is now about to kick off a 2,000 metre (m) reverse circulation (RC) first-pass drill program at the 'North zone' at M1, to follow up on historical holes from the late 1980s, including one hole by FreeportMcMoran which hit 0.55 g/t of gold over 15.2m, including 2.39 g/t of the precious metal over 1.5m.
Another hole by Coer Exploration in the 1990s hit 0.51 g/t gold and 37 g/t silver over 8.2m.
"The two holes that hit historically, they were shut down at 30m and 24m depth, which is super shallow, so we will be drilling angled holes across where these fault structures are interpreted to be and we will be drilling between 250m and 450m depth across," says Nakano, noting that, of course, the firm will be hoping to hit comparable grades to those seen at Kinsley Mountain and Long Canyon.
Nakano, who has a background in geology and was the former founder and CEO of Kismet Resources Corp, describes her roots as "entrepreneurial" and says that she wanted to establish Infield as a new exploration company literally "from scratch".
Highly experienced professionals
At Infield, she has surrounded herself with highly experienced exploration professionals, such as Richard Dufresne, formerly of Anglo American and Camino Minerals, who is its VP-Exploration to name but one.
Nakano also previously worked at major B2Gold for four years to 2014 at a time when it was accumulating assets, which took it from being a 150,000 ounce a year mid-tier gold producer to around 1 million ounces today.
Watching that company's trajectory and how it went about achieving growth has been a big influence on her, she explains, especially on how to choose the type of core, quality assets needed.
Thus Infield, she notes, went on a global mission to find quality assets when it started out. They could be at any stage of development, from advanced to greenfield, but the key requirement was that they had potential to be sizeable.
The Infield portfolio now contains three quality Nevada projects. Aside from M1, on which it struck an option deal around a year ago exactly, there's also the 1,410 Ha Desperado asset, which is 40 km east of the renowned Tonopah district, where a geophysics program is imminent in a bid to advance the property to drill-ready status.
The company also has the Bandit silver, gold project covering 1,725 Ha, which lies 30 km east of Tonopah, which saw grab samples in 2019 of 2.42 g/t gold and 301 g/t silver.
Nakano says the focus is M1 for now, but either one of its projects could advance to the point, or generate such results, where it becomes the lead asset.
Despite its early stage, the company boss sets no limit to the extent to which Infield could potentially blossom.
"I would love to be in the position someday where we are considering a takeout opportunity for Infield but we also think beyond that as well. If we continue to grow, there's no reason why we can't someday be a producer," she says.
So with a talented team, the commitment to making a discovery, and quality assets in a prime jurisdiction, Infield could well be a company to keep an eye on.
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com