Nevada King Gold Corp (TSXV:NKG) released an update on the drill program at the 100% owned Iron Point Gold Project, Nevada King Gold Corp. The Iron Point Gold Project is located 35 km east of Winnemucca, Nevada, and is one of the remaining Carlin-scale gold exploration targets in Nevada. The project is located between the Battle Mountain and Getchell gold belts and on trend with other world-class gold mines including Twin Creeks and Turquoise Ridge.
In January 2022, Nevada King commenced the five-hole exploration program at and 4000 m depth at Iron Point with the objective of finding more Carlin-type gold mineralization reserved in the lower plate carbonate rocks below Roberts Mountain Thrust, which has remained largely unexplored. This hole resulted in 5.8 m of intercepted mineralization grading 0.17 g/t Au associated with very high pioneer elements.
Cal Herron, Nevada King’s Director of Exploration, stated, “We look forward to the results of this drilling. Our 2019 intercept at the bottom of VM-008C within a lower plate, thin-bedded silty carbonate host, was a major technical success and immediately focused the Company’s attention on Iron Point’s deep gold potential. The discovery of this Carlin-type gold mineralization within this lower plate host rock type, anywhere within the Carlin, Battle Mountain and Getchell gold trends, demands follow-up investigation. This combination of mineralization style and host rock type is known to produce elephant gold deposits throughout northern Nevada.
“By taking a step beyond this technical success with deeper drilling, we hope to identify the “fire” that produced the enormous amount of gold-arsenic-mercury “smoke” found within the upper plate rocks throughout the Iron Point district. Although significant exploration has been carried out at Iron Point in the past, this is the first time an aggressive, deep drilling program focused on the Carlin-type mineralization hosted in the lower plate has been carried out.”
Iron Point
Iron Point has been explored since the mid-1960s by numerous companies seeking commodities such as gold and vanadium. In 1966 they began the search at Newmont and continued with Mirando Goldo in 2008. However, the explorations did not go beyond 300 m depth as they focused exclusively on the upper plate. And so the potential of the Lower Plate rocks beneath Robert Mountain has remained largely intact.
Highlights include:
Three of the five pre-collis are located near a deep north-south-directed structural break (the “Range Front Zone” or “RFZ”) along the eastern margin of the Iron Point mining district.
The first RFZ forebay, IP22-003, has been completed and cased to a depth of 365m. The second RFZ pre-core, IP22-004, is currently being drilled. IP22-003 and IP22-004, with collars 250m apart in a north-south direction, serve as 350m stopes to the ENE and ESE of deep drill hole VM-008C drilled in 2019.
As noted, VM-008C has bottomed at 5.8m grading 0.17 g/t Au accompanied by elevated levels of As, Sb and Hg in “dirty” silicified Lower Plate limestone with a similar appearance to the Roberts Mountain Formation. This zone is considered to have good potential for higher grade gold mineralization at depth. IP22-004 is located approximately 90 m northwest of historic hole CH-IP88-03 drilled by Chevron in 1988 which intersected 7.62 m grading 1.59 g/t Au from 353.57 m depth, including 1.54 m grading 3.68 g/t Au at 355 m. CH-IP88-03 drilled 305 m of alluvium before entering bedrock, but the gold-bearing rock unit is unknown at this time.
Proposed RFZ pre-collar IP22-005, located 600m NNE of drill hole VM-008C, is a 265m step-out from mineralization encountered in 2019 drill hole EG-001C. Grade thickness contours from nearby historic drilling indicate an ENE orientation of Au mineralization in the siliciclastic rocks of the upper plate, a vector that coincides with a steep shoulder in the gravity dataset. EG-001C intersected the following zones of low grade gold mineralization:
- 25.9m grading 0.198 g/t Au from 22.9-48.8m downhole associated with brecciated quartzite, strong sulfide veining, and intrusive dikes
- 10.7m grading 0.303 g/t Au and 50.4 g/t Ag, from 172.2-182.9m downhole hosted in quartzite with intrusive dikes, breccia, and quartz-sulfide veining
- 18.3m grading 0.309 g/t Au from 358.1-376.4m downhole hosted in granodiorite and endoskarn
EG-002, the fourth planned deep test along the RFZ, is a 265m step-out to the south of VM-008C. This drill hole was pre-collared to 305m during the 2019 program but a core tail was not drilled at that time. A 610m core tail is planned during the 2022 program, bringing the total planned depth of this hole to 915m. This hole is situated within the same structural block as VM-008C and is expected to fully test prospective Lower Plate stratigraphy in this area west of the RFZ.
Source: Nevada King Gold Corp.
Nevada King also announced a Phase II drill program for 2022 at its Atlanta Gold Mine property, located 264 km northwest of Las Vegas south of the Battle Mountain Trend.
Highlights include:
This Phase II program will step-out and test the new high-grade discovery below the old Atlanta pit; which returned 5.34 g/t Au over 54.9m, 3.94 g/t Au over 41.2m, and 3.35 g/t Au over 64.1m from 3 holes all starting at surface. The program will also test additional high-priority targets over 1.2km of strike.
Nevada King’s 2022 drill program consists of 13,100 m in 100 holes, divided into 10,000 m of vertical RC drilling and 3,100 m of vertical coring drilling.
Source: Nevada King Gold Corp.
This new program will be largely focused on expanding high-grade mineralization along and west of the Atlanta Mine Fault Zone, starting in high-grade holes drilled in 2021 and moving progressively along strike and down dip to the west. Nevada King drilling in 2022 also involves re-drilling these breccias within the overall resource zone, tying into adjacent high grade intersections as numerous historic holes failed to fully penetrate the higher grade core zones at depth.
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