May 7 2013
Coyote Resources Inc. ("Coyote" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the Company has completed the preparation of a development plan for its Tonopah Extension Mine property.
The Tonopah Extension Mine is a formerly producing, silver-gold mine located in south-central Nevada, midway between Reno and Las Vegas. This property contains the mill tailings and mine dumps that were mined in the early and mid-1900s. When the Tonopah Extension Mine was in production, the mill would send the tailings, which often have economic concentrations of precious metals, into the drainage. This drainage, known as "Slime Wash," is now choked with historic tailings that host a considerable amount of recoverable precious metals. In addition, there are substantial mine dumps that contain recoverable precious metals, and that were not processed when the mill was in operation. It is important to note that production on this property did not cease because the mines were depleted of precious metal ore, but because of the falloff in prices during the Second World War.
Preliminary tests on samples taken from the tailings in a surface sampling program showed between 19 ppm-88 ppm (0.55-2.57 troy ounces per ton) silver and 0.117 ppm-0.698 ppm (0.003-0.020 troy ounces per ton) gold. Telesto Inc., an environmental engineering and science company, conducted a Scoping Study for the property and the draft report from that study confirms the existence of recoverable precious metals in the tailings and dumps, and sets out a development plan for their recovery. In addition, the study details the findings of historical surveys conducted when the mine was in operation, and studies completed more recently, that identify a very high potential for the existence of large undeveloped underground reserves. A plan for developing the mine is also included in the draft report.
The current site development plan is divided into two sets of activities that can be conducted concurrently or consecutively, depending on the availability of financing. The first set of activities surround the development of the surface reserves contained in the mill tailings and mine dumps, and the second focuses on the validation of the underground precious metal reserves.
The development of the surface reserves will entail the completion of an auger drilling sample program of the Slime Wash, ditching and sampling of the mine dumps, and initial testing of the samples to quantify the recoverable precious metal content and economic basis for doing so. This will be followed by a more extensive sonic drilling sample program on the mine dumps and final metallurgical work on the Slime Wash, and mine dump samples, to determine the process parameters for precious metal recovery. This will lead to an engineered process for precious metal recovery and the data gathered will allow us to formalize, with a great degree of certainty, the financial projections for the processing program.
The validation of the underground precious metal reserves will entail the drilling and sampling of a series of holes, to depths of up to 2,000 feet, to determine the boundaries of the precious metal veins identified in historical surveys. The number and location of the holes to be drilled will be determined by surface surveying and mapping the historical data that was gathered through underground mine surveys when the mine was in operation.
"We believe that by following this development plan we will be able to recover sizable quantities of silver and gold from the mill tailings and mine dumps that will generate a healthy cash flow while we validate the underground precious metal reserves," states Guy M. Martin, President and CEO of Coyote Resources. "We have identified the initial funding needed to move forward with our development plan and look forward to announcing the results of the sample testing program, as they become available."
Source: http://www.coyoteresourcesinc.com/