Infield Minerals Corp. (TSX-V:INFD) said it has received a Notice of Intent (NOI) permit from the Bureau of Land Management for drilling at its wholly-owned Desperado property in the historical Ellendale Mining District in Nevada.
The Vancouver, British Columbia-based company, which is exploring for gold and silver in famously mining-friendly Nevada, said it has retained the services of Midnight Sun Drilling for the upcoming campaign, which is expected to start in July 2022. Construction of access roads and drill pads are planned to proceed imminently in preparation for drill mobilization, added the firm.
The 2022 campaign represents the first drilling at the property in recent decades and is planned to test eight to ten priority targets outlined through systematic exploration. The program consists of approximately 2,000 metres (m) of reverse circulation (RC) drilling from up to eight permitted drill sites. Priority targets include buried lithological contacts and structural features identified using modern exploration techniques, said the company.
"Over the past year, we have progressed the Desperado project from an early-stage prospect to a drill-ready status. Our systematic exploration process has identified multiple anomalous trends that are prospective for gold and silver, and we are extremely excited to drill test them," Infield CEO Evandra Nakano said in a statement.
"Several of our prospective targets are under cover, providing opportunities for discovery in areas overlooked by historical miners," he added.
The property hosts a large clay alteration footprint covering an area of over 6 kilometres (km) by 4 km, suggesting that a sizeable hydrothermal system existed during mineral emplacement. The clay alteration was detected using an Aster image spectral interpretation, and the prospective ground was further investigated during subsequent field visits in 2021.
The company said 60 rock grab samples were collected and evaluated using a Terraspec Spectrometer, which confirmed the presence of hydrothermal clay minerals such as illite, alunite, kaolinite and minor dickite. The clay-altered rocks underlying the property host several illite-kaolinite associations typical of the low sulphidation epithermal environments common in the nearby Tonopah area and along the Walker Lane trend of Nevada. “Significant potential exists across the property given the productive host environment and scale,” noted the company.
Extensive artisanal mining was conducted in the area during the early 1900s, demonstrating that mineralization was found widely distributed among the clay-altered areas.
Target potential
The company said that historical operators typically exploited formations that were either outcropping or near-surface, leaving behind “significant potential in areas under cover.” Infield has used induced polarization (IP) and magnetic geophysical surveys to target prospective structures that are buried under layers of desert gravel and have never been previously tested.
The chargeability highs associated with some of these targets may represent an increase in sulphide content which is linked to gold and silver mineralization in the area, said the company. In the western part of the property, several historical mine shafts have been observed to extend down mineralized faults. These faults, along with several others, correspond well with the magnetic survey results obtained by Infield in 2021.
Infield said it believes that Desperado is “well-positioned within favourable rocks overlain by a large hydrothermal alteration footprint” indicating the potential for a sizable epithermal system. Moreover, recent sampling and historical workings demonstrate that the system is mineralized, and that the strongest targets on the property are obscured by cover and remain untested.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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