i-80 Gold Corp said assay results from the first six holes drilled this year in the South Pacific Zone (SPZ) at the company’s Granite Creek property in Humboldt County, Nevada, continue to demonstrate "significant" potential for expansion.
The SPZ is a new zone of high-grade gold mineralization located immediately north of the underground mine workings at Granite Creek. It is the priority target of the ongoing surface drill program at Granite Creek and will be included in a resource update following the 2022 program, the mining company said.
i-80 Gold highlighted hole iGS22-05, where it intersected an “impressive” 16.4 grammes per tonne (g/t) gold (Au) over 15.3 metres (m) approximately, 110m down-dip of previous drilling and 50m below hole iGS22-04.
“Drilling continues to expand high-grade mineralization in the South Pacific Zone that remains wide open for expansion both along strike and at depth”, Tyler Hill, senior geologist at i-80 said in a statement.
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“Broad intercepts at depth demonstrate the significant upside opportunity and drilling in 2022 will continue to step-out along strike to the north towards the property recently acquired from Nevada Gold Mines. We are also extending the decline in order to accelerate the development of underground workings towards the SPZ," Hill added.
Highlights from the SPZ drilling include:
- 11.2 g/t Au over 9.0m in hole iGS22-02
- 11.2 g/t Au over 7.3m in hole iGS22-04
- 16.4 g/t Au over 15.3m in hole iGS22-05
- 11.2 g/t Au over 4.6m and 10.7 g/t Au over 4.6m in hole iGS22-06
As anticipated, holes iGS22-01 and 03, which were drilled to better define the upper limits of the SPZ, returned modest results. Holes iGS22-04, 05, and 06 were step-out holes at depth, while hole iGS22-02 is a step-out along strike to the north.
The Granite Creek property is strategically located proximal to Nevada Gold Mines’ Turquoise Ridge and Twin Creeks mines at the north end of the Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend, at its intersection with the Getchell gold belt in Nevada.
i-80 Gold is a well-financed, Nevada-focused, mining company with a goal of achieving mid-tier gold producer status through the development of multiple deposits within the company’s advanced-stage property portfolio with processing at i-80’s centralized milling facility that includes an autoclave.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com