Columbus Gold has begun the phase II drill program at the Overland Pass gold project. This project is situated towards the northern part of Bald Mountain gold mine, which is on the Carlin trend’s southern expansion.
Sniper Resources can earn a primary interest of 51% in the Overland Pass project, by bearing the yearly expenses for the exploration program. The company has planned to drill 3,048 m, totaling 25 reverse circulation (RC) holes, from 20 drill locations. Sniper has announced that the present drill program is specifically designed to follow-up the positive results of the 2007 phase I program and to analyze the further geologically favorable areas, which were untested during the phase I program. Some areas returned high-grade sampling results of gold.
The Overland Pass project’s geological setting is very much like that of the Rain gold and Alligator Ridge deposits, wherein both deposits encountered more than 1 Moz of gold.
The company has conducted a sampling program at the project and has returned gold from breccia and silicified zones, located in the Joana Limestone and Pilot shale. The stratigraphic sequence of favorable Joana or Pilot exists on a strike for around 3 km on the claim. The value of gold ranges from anomalous to 15.5 g/t gold during the surface sampling program.