Bravo Gold drills 45.5 metres of 2.1 grams per tonne

Assay results from the silver zone of Bravo Gold‘s (BVG-V) 100%-owned Homestake Ridge project in northwestern British Columbia drove the junior’s share price up 13.33% to 17¢ today.

The best intercepts came from hole HR10-199, which returned a 45.5-metre interval averaging 2.1 grams gold per tonne and 16.5 grams silver per tonne, including a 2.1-metre interval averaging 7.9 grams gold with 52.8 grams silver and a 4.4-metre interval averaging 3.4 grams gold with 38.5 grams silver. The hole was cored 60 metres up-section from high-grade mineralization in hole HR09-165 (24 metres grading 12.1 grams gold).

High-grade mineralization from drill hole HR10-203 included a 2.5 metre interval of 0.9 gram gold and 484.9 grams silver, which extended up-dip from mineralization first reported in drill hole HR10-198 (9.6 metres grading 5.9 grams gold and 6.0 grams silver).

Bravo also reported that hole HR10-200 in its newly discovered Fox Reef zone returned narrow but high-grade and silver-enriched, copper-lead-zinc mineralization including 0.7 metre (down hole thickness) averaging 0.7 gram gold, 64.4 grams silver, 1.9% copper, 12.5% zinc and 5.3% lead, which extends mineralization an additional 70 metres down-dip and along strike to the northwest from hole HR10-183.

Assays from eleven holes are pending and due in December and January.   Bravo’s management believes Homestake Ridge can be advanced as a potential high-grade underground mining operation.

The project consists of two mineral deposits distributed along a 1.8 km strike length, with  indicated resources at a 3.0 gram gold-equivalent cut-off grade, of 888,000 tonnes grading 6.69 grams gold, 47.2 grams silver, and 0.15% copper and additional inferred resources of 2.34 million tonnes grading 4.62 grams gold, 106 grams silver, and 0.13% copper.

“The mineral resources are more amenable to underground development than open pit,” Rob Macdonald, Bravo’s vice president of exploration and Homestake Ridge’s project manager, explained in a telephone interview. “To date, we have shown higher grade resources on the order of 191,000 ounces of gold and 1.35 million ounces of silver in the indicated category and 347,575 ounces of gold and 7.97million ounces of silver in the inferred category. That is a pretty good start.”

Looking ahead, Macdonald says the task will be to increase higher grade ounces within the deposits and expand their footprint, while targeting additional lenses for further exploration in the 2011 season. “There may be some definition drilling next year.”  

The project benefits from being situated just 30 km from deepwater tide water in the Iskut-Stewart-Kitsault Belt near Alice Arm and Kitsault, British Columbia. It has road access to within 6 km of the project. Homestake Ridge is within about 35 km, over reasonable terrain, from the Stewart-Cassiar highway.

“Relative to other projects in northwestern B.C., this is well-situated when looking at development costs,” he says.

It is also near power sources in the town of Kitsault. And the Northwest Transmission line, a major power line now in the environmental assessment stage, is expected to bring northwestern B.C. on to the grid and assist several large mining projects, notes Michael Rowley, a member of Bravo Gold’s corporate development team. The Northwest Transmission line is planned about 35 km to the east of the Homestake Ridge project.

Confederation Power, a Toronto-headquartered developer and operator of renewable power projects, has also proposed run-of-river hydroelectric projects, one of which is located on the Homestake Ridge property. Confederation Power has the hydroelectric rights to Homestake Creek (on the Homestake Ridge property), as well as the rights to the nearby Anyox and Kitsault dams.

“The synergies in working together look very good as we can share the cost of redeveloping and upgrading the old access road onto the claim block, and of course we may benefit from clean local electricity within the claim boundary down the road,” Rowley says.

Over the last year Bravo’s shares have traded in a range of 14¢-52¢ apiece.