Golconda using new method at California gold project

Golconda can earn a 60% stake at Star City where the company has run into difficulty while attempting to test what it believes are higher- grade gold zones.

The first four holes of a 10-hole program indicate that gold mineralization occurs over an area spanning 1,500×500 ft, according to President Guenter Liedtke.

The holes were drilled to a maximum depth of 90 ft to test an area that is covered by heavy overburden. Highlights include 35 ft of grade 0.022 oz gold per ton and 0.20 oz silver and 25 ft of grade 0.044 oz gold and 1.70 oz silver.

After obtaining no sample returns in a number of reverse circulation drill intervals, Golconda is employing a recently developed technology whereby the samples are collected through the drillbit and passed through the centre of the hammer.

Recoveries are exceeding the company’s expectations on the first 10 holes as no sample loss has occurred.

More recently Golconda has moved its drill to the “Sinterzone” area where gold mineralization has been traced to a depth of over 300 ft. Of 31 ho les drilled in that area over the past two years, more than half were abandoned after going through a 40- to 50-ft-thick layer of sinter. Many of those holes yielded no sample returns from the underlying mineralized zone.

“The remaining holes show big gaps of unrecovered samples of up to 35 ft,” Liedtke said. As the recovered samples indicate a grade of about 0.020 oz and the unrecovered intervals seem to represent higher-grade zones, Liedtke is hoping that the next assays will prove encouraging. “The potential of the sinterzone exceeds 30 million tons,” he said.

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