EXPLORATION ’99 – Great Basin seeks Ken Snyder-style deposit

Great Basin Gold (GBG-V) is encouraged by results from an ongoing 50,000-ft. drill program at its wholly owned Ivanhoe property in Nevada.

Situated in the Carlin trend, midway between Franco-Nevada Mining‘s (FN-T) newly commissioned Ken Snyder mine and Barrick Gold‘s (ABX-T) Goldstrike mine the Ivanhoe project comprises 14.7 sq. miles.

To date, 40 holes (38,417 ft.) have been completed, confirming the existence of feeder vein systems beneath the Hollister deposit. Hollister is believed to be the surface expression of a more extensive, structurally controlled gold system below.

Although multiple styles of mineralization exist on the property, Great Basin is targeting high-grade, narrow structures at depth. The junior says it has intersected veins that exhibit gold grades, widths, mineralogy and age similar to those of the Ken Snyder mine, which hosts 2.7 million tons grading 1.12 oz. gold and 12.82 oz. silver per ton.

According to the model for mineralization at Ivanhoe, hydrothermal fluids traveled through the relatively non-permeable quartzites of the Valmy formation along well-defined conduits, and, once these fluids reached the overlying permeable volcanics, they dispersed into a disseminated mass that produced the low-grade Hollister resource.

Systematic core drilling continues to outline and extend the multiple vein systems discovered at Ivanhoe. These vein systems, which are defined by numerous parallel veins and splays, generally trend in an east-westerly direction and dip toward the south.

Two of the most primary east-west vein arrays, dubbed the Clementine and Gwenivere systems, have been confirmed over strike lengths of 1,400 ft. and 800 ft., respectively.

Gold and silver mineralization along these trends extends to a vertical depth of 500 ft., and both vein systems remain open at depth and along strike. Three additional parallel vein structures exist north and south of the Clementine and Gwenivere trends.

So far, Great Basin has intersected 53 veins, with an average gold-equivalent grade of more than 0.25 oz. per ton.

At last report, the company had $6.1 million in its coffers and 25.7 millions shares outstanding.

Highlights from the latest round of drilling are shown in the accompanying table:

Hole	From-To	Intercept	Gold	Silver
	(ft.)	(ft.)	(oz./ton)	(oz./ton)
35	436-441	5	0.39	0.1
	465-467	2	0.57	0.1
37	801-804.8	3.8	1.9	0.8
39	841.7-845.7	4	0.45	15.8
42	1,051.3-1,061.2	9.9	1.07	6
44	380-395	15	0.58	0.1
	714.3-717.8	3.5	0.62	0.8
	736.9-741	4.1	0.55	1.2
46	753.5-756.4	2.9	4.11	pending