Castleworth drills Pan gold project

Vancouver — The first drill results from an ongoing program indicate an expansion of the resource at the Pan gold project in Nevada.

Castleworth Ventures (WTH-V) has intersected encouraging values in three of the four holes collared at the Syncline target, 900 ft. west of the Pan fault zone. Hole 7 returned 35 ft. grading 0.064 oz. gold per ton at a down-hole depth of 45 ft., while hole 9 yielded 60 ft. averaging 0.057 oz. gold. The holes include 10-to-20-ft. sections grading just over 0.1 oz. gold per tonne. Hole 8 cut 145 ft. grading 0.003 oz. gold. However, hole 6 failed to yield any significant values.

“These additional 0.1-ounce-per-ton intercepts add encouragement for the deep ore model at Pan,” says Castleworth President John Watson. “The results illustrate a clearer structural interpretation of these higher-grade zones and help refine a proposed plan for a series of intermediate-depth holes [+1,000 ft.] later this year.”

The 20-hole program has yet to test the Red Hill, Horseshoe, Middle Pan and Gnarly targets.

Earlier this year, the junior tabled a revised resource estimate for the Pan deposit. The new figure, calculated by Reno-based Mine Development Associates (MDA), 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.

MDA 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, 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 enabled them to outline 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.