Nevada Exploration Inc. (TSX VENTURE:NGE) announces an update on Phase I Drilling at the Shine Claims located north of the Sleeper Gold Mine in Humboldt County, Nevada.
The 15 Shine Claims are part of NGE's larger Awakening Project (432 claims), the rest of which is optioned to Northgate Minerals Corporation ("Northgate"). The objectives of the drilling program are to test for hydrothermally altered and geochemically anomalous bedrock similar to that associated with the mineralization at the adjacent Sleeper Gold Mine, and to register the geophysical datasets with geological and geochemical drilling results.
Prior to drilling, NGE completed detailed geological mapping, hydrogeochemistry, soil geochemistry, gravity geophysics, and air magnetic geophysics over the entire Awakening project. To further develop the project, Northgate has also recently completed an IP/resistivity geophysics survey. The integrated data set suggests that the Shine Claims are located on a pronounced air magnetic low and a coincident gravity low that together, suggest an area of down dropped felsic volcanic rocks similar those hosting the Sleeper deposit. The Shine Claims are located up-dip from anomalous concentrations of Au, As, Sb, Cu, Pb, Zn and Mo in groundwater, and soil samples across the Shine Claims show anomalous concentrations of Ag, As and Sb.
NGE has now completed 6 drill holes to depths of 103 to 201 meters (340ft to 660ft), totaling 1,000 meters (3,300ft). NGE has submitted and received assay results from the first five holes and is pleased report that all five holes encountered shallow bedrock, ranging from 45 to 80 meters (150 to 260ft), and weak to moderate alteration of mafic and felsic volcanic units. One drill hole bottomed in more than 70 meters (250ft) of alteration, and altered intervals were coincident with low-level gold values (up to 40ppb) and weakly anomalous trace element values.
Wade Hodges, President & CEO, explains: "The drilling results provide evidence that the migration of hydrothermal fluids on the Awakening Project was controlled by flat-lying, interflow, and contact breccia zones, and by high-angle fracture zones – the same geologic features of exploration significance that controlled the gold mineralization at Sleeper. This new data suggests that the Shine Claims are located on the periphery of an extensive network of fault zones that controls hydrothermal alteration northward from Sleeper along the gravel-covered range-front. Stronger geophysical and geochemical anomalies remain untested in these areas. Drilling continues on the Shine claims, and we look forward to Northgate's upcoming drilling program."
Discussing their 2011 drilling plans, on January 10, 2011, Northgate announced: "The Awakening project has a budget of $0.8 million to drill test a number of coincident geological/geophysical/geochemical targets defined by the 2010 geophysical program and the compilation data provided by the partner Nevada Exploration Inc. Subject to availability of drill rigs, a 4,000 m drill program is expected be initiated in the first quarter, with one to two drill rigs on the property."
Source: Nevada Exploration Inc.