Junior explorers target Tonopah district

Vancouver — LEH Ventures (LEH-V) has become the latest junior exploration company to join the hunt for gold in the Tonopah region of Nevada.

The company inked a deal to earn a 60% stake in the Baxter Spring property, 20 km north of the Midway deposit, which is being worked by Newmont Mining (NEM-N) under a joint venture with Midway Gold (MDW-V).

Surface showings on the Baxter Spring property reveal values of up to 130 grams gold per tonne, as well as a near-surface drill intercept of 237 grams gold over 3.3 metres. The project is considered prospective for replacement-style mineralization; in addition, LEH and its partners hope to outline a gold-bearing, near-vertical fracture system in the lower plate of the Roberts Mountain thrust.

The property lies between the famous Tonopah mining district, to the south, and the venerable Round Mountain gold mine, to the north. Tonopah and Round Mountain were considerable producers in the first half of the past century, and the latter lives on as a heap-leach operation under Kinross Gold (K-T) and Barrick Gold (ABX-T).

Under the deal, LEH must pay US$64,500 in staged payments and spend US$125,000 by April 15, 2004, plus another US$325,000 by April 15, 2006.

LEH has launched a program of data compilation, sampling and mapping, with drilling expected to follow later in the year.

Meanwhile, Pacific Ridge Exploration (PEX-V) has inked a deal to earn a 60% stake in the Golden Arrow property, 32 km southeast of the Midway ground.

“For the past six months, Pacific Ridge has been searching for an opportunity to participate in an advanced-stage gold project with drill-indicated target potential for a million-ounce resource, a mining-friendly location and terms allowing earn-in to a majority interest,” says the company’s president, John Brook. “The Golden Arrow meets these criteria.

Some 260 holes within a 1.5-by-4.5-km target area have resulted in a preliminary resource of 11.2 million tonnes grading 1.21 grams gold. With localized intercepts of up to 58.16 grams gold over 4.6 metres, Pacific Ridge believes previous explorers overlooked the higher-grade sections.

Under the deal, Pacific Ridge can earn a 25% interest by making staged payments totalling US$300,000, issuing 1.2 million shares, and spending US$2 million by the end of 2004. The junior can then pick up a half-stake by paying US$250,000, issuing 400,000 more shares, and spending another US$2 million by the end of 2006. To assume a 60% interest, it must spend an additional US$2 million by the end of 2007.

Pacific Ridge will explore for higher-grade epithermal vein-hosted gold showings in areas surrounding historic production.

Late last year, a subsidiary of Seabridge Gold (SEA-V) dealt a half-interest in the Thunder Mountain gold project to Castleworth Ventures (WTH-V). The project is immediately adjacent to the Midway discovery and hosts Tertiary volcanic rocks, with hydrothermal alteration surrounding quartz veins.

Castleworth can earn its interest by spending US$1.5 million and issuing 1.5 million shares over three years.

The Thunder Mountain project is on the western edge of the Hannapah mining district in the Tonopah Trend portion of the Walker Lane structural zone. The deformation zone is characterized by a series of parallel-to-subparallel northwest-trending strike-slip faults extending for several hundred kilometres; these parallel the Nevada-California border, south of Lake Tahoe.

The Tonopah trend runs east-west and is defined by low-sulphidation epithermal gold-silver districts along the major Warm Springs and Kawich-Toyaibe lineaments.

Mineralization occurs along both west-northwest and north-south structural zones and comprises quartz and quartz-carbonate vein textures indicative of the upper levels of a low-sulphidation epithermal mineral system.

In the 1960s, the property was mined, on a small scale, for gold and silver. Activity was focused on a pronounced ridge of silicified rhyolite that hosts a series of high-level epithermal veins. Sampling of the historic workings returned up to 31.8 grams gold and 4,656 grams silver per tonne.

Despite hitting the desired target, the initial results from the company’s first round of drilling returned only low-grade gold-silver values. The best intercept yielded 2.95 grams gold and 154 grams silver over 1.5 metre.

“Although the results are not the bonanza grades we were looking for, we’ve learned how to identify blind targets that have all the right characteristics,” says Castleworth President John Watson.

Based on the disappointing results, the junior intends to drill-test the nearby Clifford prospect, which is centred on the historic Clifford mine, some 60 km east of Tonopah. A geophysical program is under way and a rig is expected to be turning by July.