Nevada Exploration Inc. is pleased to announce that it has used its proprietary hydrogeochemistry exploration technology to delineate a new exploration target exhibiting high concentrations of gold in groundwater on the south-east edge of Grass Valley, along a regionally important structural corridor known to host world class gold mineralization to the north.
NGE has secured the target to establish the South Grass Valley Project by staking 186 unpatented mining claims covering 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres). The Project is located in north-central Nevada, approximately 50 kilometres (32 miles) south southwest of Barrick Gold Corp.'s Cortez Pipeline property, one of the world's largest and lowest cost gold mines, and approximately 30 km (18 miles) south of the northern Grass Valley Project, which is presently being advanced by McEwen Mining Inc. under an exploration partnership with NGE.
The South Grass Valley Project
NGE identified the South Grass Valley Project as part of its regional hydrogeochemistry exploration program. Because of its prospective regional geology and proximity to world class gold deposits, NGE considered Grass Valley to be a high priority area of interest and collected groundwater samples across the valley using NGE's proprietary hydrogeochemistry exploration technology. NGE began its sampling efforts at the northern end of valley, and the first target NGE identified was the Grass Valley Project (please refer to previous news releases detailing the exploration agreement with McEwen Mining Inc.). As NGE continued to collect groundwater samples further south in Grass Valley, NGE delineated a second area of highly anomalous gold in groundwater at the South Grass Valley Project.
In terms of its regional geologic context, the South Grass Valley Project lies along the same inferred deep-seated structural corridor as the Grass Valley Project to the north, which heads south-southwest from Barrick Gold Corp.'s Cortez Property, a series of large Carlin-type gold deposits primarily hosted in deeper lower plate bedrock. At the project scale, initial geologic mapping has established the presence of lower plate carbonate rocks outcropping within and adjacent to the Project claim boundary. These features of geologic significance have recently attracted the attention of other exploration groups; however, because much of the target is covered by a layer of sand and gravel, their efforts have predominantly been limited to the areas adjacent to the outcropping lower plate carbonate rocks near the periphery of the Project. NGE is the first to use hydrogeochemistry exploration technology to evaluate the covered portion of the Project.
In addition to the high concentrations of gold in the groundwater, there are several other geologic features of interest at the South Grass Valley Project that NGE believes help to establish the prospectiveness of the Project. Based on the regional air magnetic geophysics dataset, the granitic intrusive rocks of Jurassic age that outcrop in the southwest corner of the Project are associated with a broad magnetic response interpreted to relate to similar-aged intrusive bodies both at depth on the Project and elsewhere in the region. Of particular note, the mineralized Jurassic-aged Mill Canyon stock at Cortex Hills to the north is spatially associated with, and believed to be important in preparing the ground for, the later Tertiary-aged, Carlin-Type gold mineralization. Complementing the air magnetic geophysics, the regional gravity geophysics dataset suggests the Project is underlain by shallow bedrock adjacent to the lower plate carbonate outcrop. Together, the high concentration of gold in groundwater, the regional geologic context, the project scale mapping, and the regional geophysics datasets suggest the possibility that lower plate rocks associated with mineralization could be present at economic depths at the South Grass Valley Project, and NGE believes the Project represents a compelling new exploration target in a part of Nevada known for large, multi-million ounce gold deposits.