Castleworth drills Pan (August 06, 2003)

Vancouver The initial drill results from an ongoing drill program indicate the promise for increasing resources at the Pan gold project in Nevada.

Castleworth Ventures (WTH-V) has cut encouraging mineralization in three of the four holes collared at the Syncline target some 900 ft west of the Pan fault zone. Hole 7 returned 35 ft grading 0.064 oz gold per ton from 45 ft. downhole, 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. Hole 8 cut 145 ft grading 0.003 oz gold but hole 6 failed to yield any significant values.

“These additional 0.1 oz per ton intercepts add encouragement for the deep ore model at Pan,” says company President, John Watson. “Results are illustrating a clearer structural interpretation of these higher-grade zones and helping to 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 new resource estimate for the Pan deposit. The new figure, calculated by Reno-based Mine Development Associates, 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.

Mine Development Associates 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 holes, 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 outlined 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.