Gold Standard strikes again at Railroad

VANCOUVER — It looks like Gold Standard Ventures (GV-V) has done it again. The company’s shares jumped 51% or 91¢ on April 26 following the release of new results from the North Bullion zone at its Railroad gold property outside of Elko, Nev.

Gold Standard made a similar leap in late February when company shares increased 55% on preliminary results at Railroad. The company started the year at 75¢ per share and has since jumped 259% to a presstime close of $2.69.

The catalyst this time around was another long-intercept gold strike at North Bullion. Gold Standard cut 164 metres grading 3.38 grams gold per tonne starting from 237 metres depth at hole 12-1, which was a 91-metre-northern step-out from hole 11-16 that cut 56 metres of 4.29 grams gold starting from 169 metres in early April.

“The hole did bottom out in mineralization,” comments president and chief executive officer Jonathan Awede. “So at some point we are going to try and finish it up. We continue to confirm we’re dealing with a very robust Carlin-style trend that is more akin to some of the deposits on the northern end of the system.”

Additional highlights from the two new holes, include: 43 metres grading 9.4 grams gold starting from 279 metres; and 15 metres carrying 1.16 grams gold from 256 metres.

“We’re very pleased to see the high grades near the top of the system,” says vice-president of exploration David Mathewson. “It is above the collapsed breccias, which are formed in the carbonate units the below. The style of the setting is one of mixed breccias — both tectonic and collapsed breccias induced by dissolution. It’s an ideal environment that has been replicated in a number of environments around Nevada and usually where there are better and bigger deposits.”

Mathewson could be labelled a Carlin-trend specialist, and compares what he is seeing at Railroad to deposits that spawned gold mines like Barrick Gold’s (ABX-T, ABX-N, ABG-L) Cortez Hills, and Newmont Mining’s (NMC-T, NEM-N) Gold Strike and Gold Quarry mines.

“It’s an ideal environment that has been replicated in a number of environments around Nevada. I’m not suggesting we’re looking at something that large at this time,” Mathewson explains. “But the style and the thickness of the mineralization are very, very similar in nature. We like to see the high grade obviously, because it represents a potential proximity to conduits, and perhaps more favorable environments for the gold deposition.”

Drilling collared at the North Bullion target has defined gold-mineralized breccia bodies in the carbonate rocks more than 1,500 feet thick, over 800 feet along strike, and several hundred feet in width.

The high grades occur within a complex, commonly silicified, baritic, alunitic, and sulfidic tectonic and coincident dissolution created collapse breccias. Various zones at greater than 5.2 grams gold, are also characterized by the presence of abundant “sooty” sulfides, as well as realgar and orpiment,

“Typical of what we’re seeing in the high-grade, is some sooty sulphide, abundant very fine grain sulfide,” Mathewson explains. “We see some brassy-sheen sulfides mixed with it. Then there is the disseminated and fracture-coated realgar.”

Gold Standard has two drill rigs running at Railroad at the moment, but based on its exploration successes to date has mobilized three more rigs it expects to be in action by the beginning of June. The company is focusing on its step-out program at the North Bullion zone, but has additional high-priority targets lined up,

“We will aggressively pursuing the Railroad fault zone target, which is southwest of the North Bullion fault zone,” Mathewson says, “Interestingly we have very strong oxidation in that target, and I think this all relates, in one fashion or another, to a much larger system — geochemical or hydrothermal — that has placed all the gold in these localities.  All this portends well for the future, this is a district scale opportunity in the range of [78 sq.km] of property.”

Gold Standard’s share structure remains tightly controlled with 69.9 million units outstanding, the company is 74% owned by insiders and institutional investors including Albert Friedberg’s FCMI Parent Co., which subscribed for 11 million shares in February 2011. FCMI is a pro forma 19.9% shareholder in Gold Standard, and maintains a right to participate in future equity financings on a pro rata basis.

Gold Standard has a US$156-million-presstime market capitalisation and trades at average volumes of 352,000 units per day.