Walker River Resources has reported that reverse circulation drilling has resumed at the Lapon Gold Project, which is 60 km southeast of Yerington, Nevada.
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A seven-to-ten-hole program is planned at the Lapon Project’s Pikes Peak section, where drilling has already begun. Shafts, adits, and a mill from significant previous mining operations are still visible in the copper and gold environment at Pikes. Walker’s earlier area sample and prospecting efforts yielded bedrock values of 9 g/t Au and 2.2% Cu.
The presence of a quartz monzonite porphyry, crucial for the positioning of copper and gold mineralization in Nevada, was also discovered by geological mapping and surveying. Notably, there have been no reported recent geological exploration or drilling efforts on the Pikes Peak claims region.
Drilling will start at the Lapon Canyon section of the Lapon Gold Project after the Pikes Peak program. The Hotspot area, which is 200 m above and 250 m on strike southeast of the ancient mine workings, and high-grade drilling intercepts from Walker’s earlier drilling from 2016 to 2021 will be the focus of drilling.
Among other notable drill results from this region, the Hotspot Zone produced 7.62 g/t Au over 48.8 m in LC 21-80, 5.68 g/t Au over 60.9 m in LC 21-81, and 1.84 g/t Au over 122 m in LC 21-84.
Like Basin and Range thrust faulting, the Hotspot Zone seems horizontal or sub-horizontal. As a result, drilling can be done from the same drill pad in several azimuth directions. Up to five holes can be drilled from a single drill pad, often in a fan-shaped pattern.
Here, the topography and mountain’s steepness are less extreme, making the drill access's setup, construction, and drilling easier and quicker. The drill road access and pad building can proceed more quickly and affordably because the mineralization is not visible at the surface and is covered by roughly 3 m of loose colluvium.
Walker will be able to conduct systematic drilling on sections with pads positioned around every 30 m, with up to five holes per pad, owing to this and the shape of the mineralized zone. Construction of additional drill access roads and pads has been finished for the present and upcoming drill programs.
About the Lapon Gold Project
The Walker Lane shear zone, a 100 km-wide structural corridor extending southeast from Reno, Nevada, contains the 147 claims (2940 acres) that make up the Lapon Gold Project. It is located in the Wassuk Range and extends for 100 km.
The project is situated about 60 km southeast of Yerington, Nevada, and is easily reachable by secondary state roads from the major highway (25 km). Within 3 km of the project, a transmission line for the state electricity system passes.
The Pikes Peak claims, which are 4 km to the north of Lapon Canyon, the Rattlesnake and Range Front claims, which are 3 km to the west and more than 600 m lower than the current drilling at Lapon Canyon, and Lapon Canyon are all included in the Lapon Gold Project.
The Rattlesnake, Range Front, and Pikers Peak claim to add numerous more drill target locations to the project and encompass over eight km of potential range front zone extensions to the west, north, and south of Lapon Canyon.
With adits at various levels, shafts, and subterranean workings, as well as a network of current roadways allowing access all over, Rattlesnake and Pikes Peak have several old mining and milling regions.
Before Walker’s arrival, there had been little to no exploratory work on these claims. The Lapon Canyon discoveries are situated 3 km on strike and 600 m above the Rattlesnake area and adits, which is noteworthy.
Lapon Canyon is home to a historical high-quality gold mine, with three adits containing around 2000 feet of active workings. With one sample taken from the end of the A adit yielding 20.6 ounces per ton of gold, historical underground labor has produced many assay results in the one ounce per ton area (NI43-101, Montgomery and Barr, 2004).