Riley Gold Corp. (“Riley Gold” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that exploration planning is currently underway for its 100% controlled Pipeline West/Clipper Gold Project (“Pipeline West”), within the Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend.
Map of Riley Gold’s Pipeline West/Clipper Gold Project – Project boundaries are approximate. Image Credit: Riley Gold Corp.
Pipeline West is located in Lander County (Cortez Mining District), approximately 80 km southwest of Elko, Nevada. Nearby and proximal gold deposits include Barrick’s ‘Cortez Complex’ (now operated under the Nevada Gold Mines LLC, a joint venture amongst Barrick and Newmont, (“NGM”)): Pipeline; Gap; Gold Acres; Cortez; Cortez Hills; Goldrush and Four Mile as well as Robertson.
Riley Gold’s Pipeline West adjoins the NGM claim boundary on the west and lies just 1,000 metres west of NGM’s Pipeline/Gap Mine as well as only 600 metres west of NGM’s Gold Acres open pit, where a window into carbonates of the lower plate of the Roberts Mountains Thrust outcrops. The Company is also excited to report that the majority of Riley Gold’s remaining Pipeline West claim boundary (north and west), that adjoined Ridgeline Mineral’s (“Ridgeline”) Swift project is now subject to a recently announced earn-in transaction between Ridgeline and NGM whereby NGM can earn up to a 70% interest by spending US$30M (up to 75% by arranging debt funding for Ridgeline’s portion of development costs).The September 22, 2021 news release can be found on SEDAR or Ridgeline’s website. See Figure 1 below for approximate project locations and boundaries.
“We commend both Ridgeline and NGM on this earn-in agreement of the highly prospective Swift project within a region well known by NGM due to their past and current production and their currently reported gold reserves and resources of approximately 35.2 million ounces of gold within the Cortez Complexi. The Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend, and particularly this portion of the trend, has been blessed with favourable geology and very large gold deposits like few places on earth. Having a major gold producer continuing to explore regionally, and working with junior explorers too, is a proven model for success. We are now essentially surrounded by NGM and look forward to beginning our own exploration program at Pipeline West,” commented Todd Hilditch, CEO.
Exploration at Pipeline West is expected to target lower plate carbonates with deeper drilling than previously completed, which has been less than 250 metres on the majority of the property. Soil geochemistry, detailed mapping and geophysics (including magnetics and gravity) are anticipated to be utilized, in an effort to further define favourable structures to target for drilling.