Castleworth boosts Pan

Vancouver — According to a new resource estimate, Castleworth Ventures‘ (WTH-V) Pan deposit in Nevada contains 467,000 oz. gold.

The new figure, calculated by Reno-based Mine Development Associates, marks a 33% increase over previous estimates and includes 17.9 million tons of material grading 0.019 oz. gold per ton in the indicated category and 8 million tons grading 0.016 oz. gold in the inferred section.

Mine Development Associates assessed two mineralized zones, North Pan and South Pan-Horseshoe, and employed a cutoff grade of 0.01 oz. gold per tonne. The estimate is based on 476 drill holes, spanning 129,255 ft.

Most of the drilling, some 253 holes, was collared in the Pilot Ridge area of North Pan. Of these holes, 74 bottomed in mineralization grading more than 0.01 oz per ton. At South Pan-Horseshoe, scattered drilling has defined a mineralized zone measuring 1,000 by 200 ft.

The deposit is in White Pine Cty., on the southeastern extension of the Battle Mountain-Eureka gold trend, which hosts the Lone Tree, Pipeline, Cortez, Gold Bar and Archimedes deposits. Mineralization occurs in sediments in the basal portions of the Pilot shale.

The property was first explored in 1978, when Nevada prospector Lyle Campbell staked it under a joint-venture arrangement with Amselco, a subsidiary of British Petroleum. Over the next eight years, the partners drilled 85 reverse-circulation drill holes, which outlined a low-grade resource at the North Pan zone. In 1986, Hecla Mining (hl-n) explored the property, though most exploratory drilling occurred between 1987 and 1992 under a joint venture involving Echo Bay Mines and Alta Gold. It was during this time that the South Pan zone was discovered.

By 1998, ownership had shifted to Latitude Minerals, which outlined two potentially minable resources totalling 254,000 oz. gold. Latitude drilled more than 60 holes in the North and South Pan areas, and went on to test three new targets: Syncline, Red Hill and Horseshoe.

Early in 2003, Castleworth leased the property in a deal involving 10 other properties. The arrangement calls for annual work expenditures and advanced minimum royalty payments totalling US$140,000. The vendor retains a sliding-scale production royalty of 2.5-4% of gross revenue.

“When combined with our joint-venture project at Thunder Mountain, these properties provide a solid base for the future,” says Castleworth President John Watson. “That includes known resources, excellent discovery potential, and strategic positions within three of Nevada’s most prolific trends.”

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 hundreds of kilometres.

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 the west-northwest and north-south structural zones and is characterized by quartz and quartz-carbonate vein textures. The veins are indicative of the upper levels of a low-sulphidation epithermal mineral system.

The property was mined, on a small scale, for gold and silver in the 1960s. Activity was focused on a ridge of silicified rhyolite that hosts a series of high-level epithermal veins.

A newly completed drill program designed to test for bonanza-type gold structures returned only low-grade gold-silver values. The best intercept yielded 0.09 oz gold and 4.9 oz silver over 5 ft.

Based on the results, the junior has shifted its attention to the nearby Clifford prospect, where a geophysical program is under way.

Castleworth can earn a half-stake in the property from a subsidiary of Seabridge Gold (SEA-V) by spending US$1.5 million and issuing 1.5 million shares over three years.

At Pan, Castleworth intends to drill two targets for deeper, higher-grade mineralization related to “feeder” structures, which may have been the conduits for the near-surface deposits. Previous drilling indicated higher-grade potential, with values of up to 0.22 oz. gold per tonne over 5 ft. and 0.14 oz. gold over 20 ft.

“In the past, these deeper zones have proved challenging to find,” states Watson. “We’ve mapped the most prospective areas and plan to use the pattern of near-surface mineralization and structure to locate these feeder zones.”