RENO, Nev. , Jan. 30, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nevada Exploration Inc. (“NGE” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: NGE; OTCQB: NVDEF) is pleased to announce that the results of a mercury soil sampling program combined with the results of its earlier hydrogeochemistry (groundwater) sampling program have extended the geochemistry support for its NNW-trending target at South Grass Valley another 1,500 metres beyond the 2,500 meters established based on the results of its ongoing drilling program, for a total of 4,000 metres, which still remains open.
Mercury is one of the characteristic pathfinder elements associated with Carlin-type gold deposits (CTGDs): thallium, antimony, mercury, and arsenic. As the most volatile of the CTGD pathfinders, mercury is the most easily transported vertically, in vapour phase. Because of its vertical mobility and strong association with CTGDs, testing for mercury in soils to detect covered CTGD mineralization is a logical tool for focusing exploration efforts at covered targets. As part of a deposit case study at the Cortez Hills deposit at the north of end of Grass Valley, soil sampling demonstrated that mercury concentrations in soil increase immediately above the footprint of gold mineralization.
NGE identified its blind, covered exploration target at South Grass Valley using hydrogeochemistry, specifically responding to highly-anomalous concentrations of gold in groundwater. With bedrock getting deeper towards the north end of the target area, and with NGE’s groundwater sampling predominantly limited to shallow depths (< 60 metres), the distance above bedrock that NGE collected groundwater samples varied considerably across different areas of the Project, which introduces a potential source of variability for the gold and related pathfinder element concentrations in the groundwater samples. Accordingly, while the absolute gold-in-groundwater concentrations at the north end of the Project, where samples were collected further from the bedrock surface, are not as high as at the south end, where samples were collected closer to the bedrock surface, the concentrations at the north end are still highly anomalous and coincident with the NNW projection of a structurally complex package of favourable lower-plate carbonate host rocks based on air magnetic and gravity geophysics, which together provide evidence that the CTGD-style hydrothermal system recently discovered by the Company may extend northwards beyond the limits of NGE’s initial phase of drilling.
To complement the hydrogeochemistry data and provide an additional source of geochemistry data to focus the next phase of drilling, NGE completed a mercury soil sampling program across the Project. NGE completed 13 E-W sample lines spaced every 400 metres, with an average length of about 3,000 metres, and with sample locations spaced every 50 metres along the lines, for total of approximately 930 samples.
In terms of the distribution of mercury-in-soil concentrations, the results of the program show:
- background concentrations as low as 6 ppb;
- a median (50th percentile) concentration of 37 ppb;
- the majority (72%) of samples contain concentration less than 50 ppb;
- 100 ppb corresponds to the 93.6 percentile (top 6.4%) of all samples collected; and
- the 100+ ppb samples cluster almost exclusively within the Company’s NNW target area, and importantly extend northward beyond NGE’s initial area of focus, coincident with the anomalous concentrations of gold in groundwater that continue in this direction.
Discussing the results of the mercury soil sampling program, Wade Hodges, NGE’s CEO: “We know that at Cortez Hills, at the north end of the valley, mercury in soils does a great job of mapping the extent of this large covered deposit; and we know based on our recent drill assay results that we’re getting highly-anomalous concentrations of mercury along with elevated gold in thick intervals of favourable lower-plate bedrock containing significant concentrations of CTGD pathfinders associated with intense hydrothermal-alteration. Combining mercury in soils with hydrogeochemistry has given us further evidence that the hydrothermal system we’ve discovered at South Grass Valley may continue another 1,500 metres, beyond the 2,500 meters we’ve seen in the drilling so far, for a total of 4,000 metres (which is still open). For context, with the addition of Fourmile, the mineralization along Barrick’s Goldrush-Fourmile camp extends for 7,000 metres. We’ve set our bar at looking for projects that offer plus five million-ounce potential, and each new layer of information is reinforcing that our target at South Grass Valley is large enough to support this scale of mineralization.”
The Company has submitted a permit application to provide additional drill sites at the north end of the Project, as well as additional locations at the south end of the Project to infill around the drill holes completed to date. At this time, NGE is currently drilling SGVC007, located 400 metres east of hole SGVC006. For more information about the Company’s current drilling program at South Grass Valley, please see the recent news release dated January 23, 2019: https://www.nevadaexploration.com/news/nevada-exploration-drilling-enlarges-target-at-south-grass-valley-project-battle-mountain--eureka-trend-nevada
As NGE continues drilling at South Grass Valley, per NI 43-101, 2.3(2), the Company must remind its stakeholders that the Project remains an exploration target for which the potential quantity and grade of any mineral resource is still conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource.
About Nevada Exploration Inc.
NGE is an exploration company advancing a portfolio of new district-scale gold exploration projects along Nevada’s Battle Mountain-Eureka (Cortez) Trend. NGE is led by an experienced management team that has been involved in several significant discoveries in Nevada, including the discovery of Lone Tree and Rabbit Creek (part of the Twin Creeks Mine). NGE’s team has spent the last decade integrating the use of hydrogeochemistry with conventional exploration tools to develop a Nevada-specific regional-scale geochemistry exploration program.
With new proprietary technology, NGE has completed the world’s largest groundwater sampling program for gold exploration, collecting approximately 6,000 samples to evaluate Nevada’s covered basins for new gold exploration targets. To advance follow-up targets, NGE has overcome the high drilling costs that have previously prohibited the wide-spread use of drilling as a prospecting tool by developing its Scorpion drill rig, a small-footprint, truck-mounted, small-diameter RC drill rig specifically tailored to the drilling conditions in Nevada’s basins (analogous to RAB drilling in other parts of the world).
By integrating hydrogeochemistry and early-stage low-cost drilling with conventional exploration methods, NGE is overcoming the challenges and radically reducing the costs of exploring in Nevada’s covered basins, and is taking significant steps to open this important new search space up for district-scale exploration.
For further information, please contact:
Nevada Exploration Inc.
Email: info@nevadaexploration.com
Telephone: +1 (604) 601 2006
Website: www.nevadaexploration.com
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Wade A. Hodges, CEO & Director, Nevada Exploration Inc., is the Qualified Person, as defined in National Instrument 43-101, and has prepared the technical and scientific information contained in this News Release.
Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information:
This news release contains “forward-looking information” and “forward-looking statements” (collectively, “forward-looking information”) within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including, without limitation, expectations, beliefs, plans, and objectives regarding projects, potential transactions, and ventures discussed in this release.
In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, the Company has made numerous assumptions, regarding, among other things, the assumption the Company will continue as a going concern and will continue to be able to access the capital required to advance its projects and continue operations. While the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies.
In addition, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are the risks inherent in mineral exploration, the need to obtain additional financing, environmental permits, the availability of needed personnel and equipment for exploration and development, fluctuations in the price of minerals, and general economic conditions.
A more complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company is disclosed in the Company’s continuous disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities at www.sedar.com. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d424475e-79e4-41f8-988a-ba15e1e2a2a0