Newrange expands gold mineralization at Pamlico in Nevada

Newrange Gold (TSXV: NRG) has reported drill results from the Merritt zone at its flagship Pamlico gold project in Nevada, 19 km southeast of Hawthorne.

The 17-sq.-km property covers the historic Pamlico mines on Pamlico Ridge and the former producing Central, Good Hope, Gold Bar, and Sunset mines, in addition to various unnamed historic mines and other prospects.

Pamlico was discovered around 1884, with reports indicating that by 1886 the district was shipping ore to custom mills, most likely at the Aurora and Comstock (Virginia) districts, according to the company. A 20-stamp mill was built in 1888-1889 and operated until 1931.

Drilling by the previous owners on the Merritt zone in 1999 intersected high-grade mineralization, with drill hole PAM99-03 returning 5 metres grading 239.7 grams gold per tonne, including 1 metre grading 702.5 grams gold per tonne.

The property is underexplored in modern times, with no property-wide geology, geochemistry, or geophysics, the company said. Only 103 shallow holes had been drilled on the entire property when Newrange acquired it in July 2016.

With around 300 separate, historic mine workings mostly developed during the late-1800s exploring up to 100 individual veins, Pamlico’s history, the company said, mimics the early history at currently producing high-grade gold mines in Nevada, including Hecla Mining‘s (NYSE: HL) Midas and Fire Creek mines.

Given the high-grade of the gold mineralization in historic surface and underground samples and drill results, the property represents a unique opportunity to explore and develop a district scale, near-surface, potentially high-grade gold deposit in multiple target areas across the property, the company said.

Pamlico also offers the potential for small-scale gold recovery from the current permits in place for test mining from the Merritt decline.

The latest drill results from the Merritt zone are part of the company’s 10,000-metre 2020 drill program, which began at the end of May. Initially, the drilling consisted of relatively shallow holes designed to test the continuity of near-surface gold mineralization between the historic workings of the Pamlico, Gold Bar, and Gold Hope mines.

To date, 34 holes totalling 3,462 metres have been drilled, mostly along an 800-metre length of Pamlico Ridge between an area of high-grade mineralization drilled in 2017 and the historic Gold Bar mine. The company plans to drill a further 35 holes, including diamond drill holes later in the program to test some of the deeper targets.

Highlights from the latest drilling included drill hole P20-82, which intersected 32 metres grading 4.74 grams gold and 2.25 grams silver starting from 44 metres downhole, including higher-grade intervals of 9 metres grading 14.85 grams gold and 3.57 grams silver from 53 metres, and 3 metres grading 34.11 grams gold and 7.64 grams silver from 55 metres. The hole also intersected a zone of near-surface oxide gold mineralization over 9 metres grading 1.1 grams gold and 3.67 grams silver from 22.86 metres. According to the company, hole P20-82 expanded the high-grade mineralization footprint by filling in an important gap between adjacent drill holes P17-03, 18, and 32.

Drill hole P20-83 returned 6 metres grading 0.48 gram gold and 9.13 grams silver from 5 metres, expanding the zone of oxide gold mineralization to the southeast.

Newrange is expanding the drill program in this area and other parts of the property, including step-outs from hole P17-10, the highest-grade hole from its 2017 drill program, which intercepted multiple high-grade intercepts. That hole cut 12 metres grading 49.49 grams gold from 26 metres, including 6 metres grading 97.94 grams gold and 2 metres grading 340.9 grams gold from 27 metres.

During recent drilling, the company discovered that the drill rig was unsuitable for the terrain and prevented many higher priority holes from being accessed. As a consequence, a new contractor was brought in with a more versatile, track-mounted rig.

The company plans to construct a road that will allow the rig to drill test the upper Good Hope mine, which lies about 800 metres southeast of the Merritt zone along the Pamlico Ridge’s general trend. Underground channel sampling at the mine identified consistent high-grade results, including 40 metres grading 13.89 grams gold and 71.19 grams silver at the historic mine’s 5690 level.

The company is also conducting follow-up drilling of hole P20-65, which returned 5 metres grading 0.54 gram gold and 23.53 grams silver from surface, with additional highly anomalous gold mineralization at depth on the Gold Box zone, 1 km northeast of Merritt.

At press time in Toronto, Newrange was trading at 15.5¢ per share within a 52-week trading range of 7¢ and 43¢. The company has 121 million shares outstanding for an $18.8-million market capitalization.