Drills turn at Sleeper mine property

Vancouver — Three drills are testing the Sleeper project, a past-producing gold property in Nevada’s Humboldt Cty. The land package is held by New Sleeper Gold, a company owned equally by X-Cal Resources (XCL-T) and Kinross Gold (K-T).

The partners formed a new joint venture early this year to consolidate their holding in the 30-sq.-mile Sleeper district. At least US$6 million will be spent on exploration this year, including core drilling in the West Wood area to follow-up encouraging results obtained from previous reverse-circulation drilling. The core drilling will also test a new, deeper zone, discovered last fall.

The program will test areas of resource potential in the mine-site area, including the West Wood and Silica Cap areas, and less advanced targets within the mine-site, such as the depth and strike extensions of the Sleeper vein system and the Bedrock Casino area. Exploration is also planned for regional targets identified in previous programs.

The Sleeper joint venture is operated by a committee made up of two members from each company.

X-Cal also holds mineral claims in the Sleeper district independent of its agreements with Kinross. The junior is drilling its wholly owned Mill Creek gold property in Lander Cty.