High tonnage, low grade for Quartz Mountain

With 623 drill holes now complete, the latest assay results are expected to increase reserves at Quartz Mountain Gold and Galactic Resources’ 10,000-acre gold property in south-central Oregon, the partners say.

Using an 0.01 oz cutoff grade, reserves previously stood at 128.6 million tons averaging 0.02 oz gold per ton.

Quartz Chairman William Bird says the Crone Hill and Quartz Butte orebodies are now drilled out on 100-foot centres and the new reserves will be based on those results.

Meanwhile, Bird says the final assays from Crone Hill, Quartz Butte and Angels Camp (where the core hole is located) have substantially increased the areas of high grade ore.

High grade Zone III tripled in size and outliers have developed that could, with further deep exploration, become major new zones, he said.

Of the more than 100 Crone Hill and Quartz Butte holes assayed since mid-November, 25% contained significant intercepts of ore grading above 0.1 oz.

The majority of the remaining holes contained from 50 to over 300 ft of ore grade material.

Some recently received holes assayed as follows: Hole 506 intersected 15 ft of grade 0.241 oz between 105 and 120 ft. The same hole encountered 180 ft of average 0.048 oz. Hole 594 also averaged 0.048 over 245 ft.

Hole 448 intersected 110 ft of 0.200 oz and 290 ft of 0.092 oz. Hole 477 cut a 300-ft intercept grading 0.061 oz.

“These results are significantly better than those reported from 1986 drilling on which previous reserve numbers were calculated,” Bird says.

He says the new reserves will be incorporated into a Quartz Mountain and Galactic Resources final feasibility study and a production decision is scheduled for the first quarter of this year.