Pershing Gold is a young gold explorer with an already excellent acreage footprint in northwestern Nevada via their Relief Canyon Gold Project, North Battle Mountain site, and the Red Rock property in Lander County, upon the last of which the company reported on today, offering comprehensive results from their 2011 exploration program, with emphasis on the geophysical survey/drilling data. The best intercept was 10 feet grading 1.23 gpt Au (5 feet at 2.18 gpt center).
Director of Exploration for PGLC, Art Leger, explained that the 2011 programs were designed to further define a Carlin-type mineralization deposit at depth and that he was pleased with the drilling/survey results, which offer very favorable indicators, especially in the context of the Controlled Source Audio Magneto-Telluric (CSAMT) survey data. Drilling has identified good indicators of mineralization and the CSAMT geophysical data has helped to quantify the mapping, giving the PGLC teams a good picture of what to expect, with obvious zones of structural preparation to focus on.
Here’s an overview of relevant 2011 data from drilling/surveying at the Red Rock Mineral Prospect:
– Some 5,380 acres in the sweet spot between two of Nevada’s most prolific gold trends (Battle Mountain-Eureka and Rabbit Creek) affords multiple targets
– 67 new lode claims located and now targeted for further mapping/sampling in anticipation of future drilling
– Some 10,426 feet of combined core/reverse circulation drilling across 15 rotary and core holes (drill assays done by ALS Minerals, down in Reno)
– All holes returned intersections of 0.050 g/t Au or higher with RRC-11-15 being the pick of the litter at 10 feet grading 1.23 gpt Au (internally, 5 feet at 2.18 gpt also recorded)
CSAMT wrapped with the final run in Dec of 2011 and helped define the complex structural zone mapped in the central target area, including a previously un-quantified series of complex, north/south-trending fault structures (huge indicator and very typical of Carlin-type mineralization in the Battle Mountain- Eureka trend). These high-angle faults intersect the Caetano Graben fault zone and the underlying geology/geochemistry is being interpreted by PGLC as a classic, potentially large tonnage Carlin-type gold system at depth leaking mineralizing fluids.
With what are essentially two potentially productive structural targets, one fault cutting the east side of the property on the north rim of the Caetano Caldera (just 1.3 miles northwest of the Horse Mountain gold prospect hosted in that lower, approaching Devonian-age carbonate strata), and one in the west on the edge of the Reese River Valley (just 11.2 miles southeast of the legendary Cove-McCoy gold mine).
The nexus is a gravity high believed to represent altered rocks at depth and extant soil and rock samples, combined with the CSAMT geophysical surveys offers the view that we have a block that has been pushed up, bringing much lower strata (Silurian/Devonian-age), like the proven gold host rock of the Roberts Mountains Formation (evident in multiple Carlin-type deposits) within striking distance.
Core log data offers a solid portrait, with anomalous gold amid salient levels of arsenic, mercury, thallium, and tellurium correlating directly with the gold intervals, as well as the kind of typical sooty carbon alteration, prominent quartz veining, and rich pyrite quantities that are a hallmark of upper-layer Carlin-type mineralization found throughout geological region.
President and CEO of PGLC, Stephen Alfers, indicated that the company was in ongoing work to secure arrangements whereby a significant interest in Red Rock can be maintained, while a third party moves the development of the property forward. Alfers underscored the impressive geological address of the property and was clearly eager to get started implementing advanced recovery technologies to this under-explored region of Nevada.
Complete drill results, as well as updated information, will be made available via the Pershing Gold website located at: www.PershingGold.com
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