Silver-gold intercepts lift Harvest

Harvest Gold (HVG-V) caught the market’s attention with drill results that indicate the site of the former Rosebud gold mine in Nevada could still have more to offer.

Rosebud was mined by Newmont Mining (NMC-T, NEM-N) and Hecla Mining (HL-N) between 1997 and 2000, producing nearly 400,000 oz. gold and 2.3 million oz. silver.

But despite such heavyweights being active on the ground, Harvest says its latest results show the highest silver grades ever drilled at Rosebud.

The silver-rich numbers came from hole 3, which returned 35.1 metres grading 238.1 grams silver per tonne and 0.82 gram gold per tonne, including 12.2 metres of 564.3 grams silver and 1.58 grams gold.

The intercept, characterized by quartz vein and stockwork material, was drilled to the northeast of the North zone roughly 30 metres from the nearest underground mine workings.

More significant results came from hole 5, which returned 114.3 metres of 0.49 gram gold including 9.1 metres of 1.4 grams gold and 4.6 metres of 2.16 grams gold.

The hole hit mineralization at 97 metres depth and extends the bulk tonnage halo to the south. The area is open to the north, east, south and at depth and extends toward mineralization intersected in historic drill holes roughly 150 metres to the west.

Also boding well for the potential of the area is the fact that the hole sits in a sparsely drilled area 100 metres south of the nearest underground mine workings.

The original underground operation mined three high-grade ore zones, with an average production grade of 14.2 grams gold and 75 grams silver.

Despite those high grades, the mine was shut down due to falling gold prices but before that, the cutoff grade was raised to 6.2 grams gold from 5.2 grams, meaning that mineralized material below the cutoff was not mined.

Harvest says Hecla completed a non-43-101 compliant resource estimate before the mine closed in 2000, which estimated 6.81 million tonnes of 1.25 grams gold and 10.6 grams silver for 242,000 oz. gold and 2.13 million oz. silver.

Harvest’s drill results come from the first five reverse circulation drill holes in a 12-hole program that dug a total of 4,575 metres. The company expects assay results from the remaining holes to be ready within two weeks.

Rosebud is in Pershing Cty., Nev., within the Lovelock-Austin mineral belt and sits roughly 8 km south of Allied Nevada Gold’s (ANV-T, ANV-X) producing Hycroft gold mine.

Harvest says the recent results indicate near-surface bulk tonnage mineralization with grades comparable to average grades found at Hycroft.

Rosebud is a high-grade low-sulphidation volcanic-hosted deposit, similar in origin, geologic setting, and mineralization style to other low-sulphidation gold deposits in northern Nevada, Harvest says.

Mineralization occurs at and below the unconformity between Tertiary volcanics and Triassic- Jurassic phyllites. High-grade mineralization is found within and near the unconformity, which went largely untested by previous drilling.

True widths are not known and additional modeling and drilling will be required to determine true widths.

Harvest says it is currently looking for an engineering firm to do a NI 43-101 resource estimate.

In Toronto on Aug. 5 — the day the results were released — Harvest shares shot up 40% or 4¢ to 14¢ on 1.9 million shares traded.