Pacific Rim

Junior Nevada Pacific Gold (NPG-V) is encouraged by results from a second round of drilling on the Limousine Butte property in White Pine Cty., Nev.

The project is operated by Newmont Mining (NEM-N), which can earn up to a 70% interest in the 20-sq.-mile-plus property by spending US$3 million on exploration over six years.

Limousine Butte consists of a large, gold-bearing hydrothermal system that exhibits alteration features similar to sediment-hosted, structurally controlled gold deposits in the Carlin trend and elsewhere in the states.

Twenty-one of the 36 holes (totalling 18,165 ft.) drilled in the second phase of reverse-circulation program returned gold intercepts exceeding 0.01 oz. gold per ton. Most of the drilling targeted areas of silicification, clay alteration and brecciation in a 1-by-6-mile segment of the project. Highlights of the better intercepts (greater than 20 ft. in thickness) are summarized as follows:

– Hole 24 — 40 ft. grading 0.033 oz., starting at 400 ft. down-hole;

– Hole 28 — 40 ft. of 0.015 oz., starting at 335 ft. down-hole;

– Hole 40 — 150 ft. of 0.041 oz., starting at 90 ft. down-hole;

– Hole 43 — 65 ft. of 0.039 oz., starting at 90 ft. down-hole;

– Hole 44 — 80 ft. of 0.02 oz., starting at 570 ft. down-hole

– Hole 45 — 85 ft. of 0.056 oz., starting at 75 ft. down-hole, including 50 ft. of 0.087 oz.;

– Hole 46 — 70 ft. of 0.137 oz., starting at 415 ft. down-hole, including 30 ft. of 0.26 oz.;

– Hole 47 — 40 ft. of 0.021 oz., starting at 260 ft. down-hole;

– Hole 48 — 100 ft. of 0.041 oz., starting at 65 ft. down-hole.

Newmont and Nevada Pacific recently acquired additional claims to expand the project by 5 sq. miles. Newmont is currently evaluating the results, and Nevada Pacific reports that the extensive outcropping and subsurface alteration found to date at Limousine Butte suggest the presence of several hydrothermal cells. Indications are that large thicknesses of favourable host rock have been exposed to metal-bearing fluids over a long period of time. The presence of strong pathfinder geochemistry and elevated gold values suggests the possibility of a large gold-bearing system.

Newmont’s goal is to find to find a multi-million-ounce oxide gold deposit minable by open-pit methods.