Limousine Butte drilling turns up gold

Vancouver — Nevada Pacific Gold (NPG-V) reports impressive assay results from the first two holes drilled on its wholly owned Limousine Butte project, in Nevada’s White Pine Cty.

The initial holes in the reverse-circulation program tested the continuity of the Resurrection Ridge high-grade gold mineralization found in hole LIM-46. That hole was drilled by Newmont Mining (NEM-N) in 2000.

Highlights of the recent results are as follows;

Hole 1 cut 155 ft. averaging 0.061 oz. gold per ton starting at a down-hole depth of 375 ft. This included a 50-ft. interval that averaged 0.162 oz. gold starting at 405 ft. down-hole and a 25-ft. interval of 0.269 oz. gold starting at 415 ft. down-hole.

Hole 2 cut 195 ft. grading 0.05 oz. gold per ton starting at 270 ft. down-hole, including a 30-ft. interval of 0.123 oz. gold starting at 380 ft. down-hole.

Newmont’s previously drilled hole, LIM-46, intersected 70 ft. averaging 0.137 oz. gold starting at 415 ft. down-hole and included a 30-ft. interval of 0.26 oz. gold starting at 415 ft. down-hole.

Holes 1 and 2 reveal an alteration and rock type similar to those indicated by hole LIM-46. Both the new holes appear to crosscut the same gold-bearing structure. In addition, the zone of clay-altered siltstones and brecciated jasperoid is significantly thicker in the two new holes. These wider zones of alteration correspondingly host thicker zones of gold mineralization.

Two additional holes have been completed in the vicinity of the LIM-46 target zone, and assays are pending. A fifth hole is being drilled 500 ft. north of LIM-46; it is testing a newly discovered zone that returned surface rock-chip values of up to 1.97 parts per million gold and soil gold values of up to 104 parts per billion gold.

Once Nevada Pacific completes hole 5, four holes will test other targets in the Resurrection Ridge area.

The 24-sq.-mile Limousine Butte project is on the projected and untested southern extension of the Carlin trend. The property hosts a large hydrothermal gold system that exhibits alteration features indicative of sediment- and structure-hosted gold deposits.

The project area is underlain by an Upper Paleozoic sequence of sediments consisting of massive carbonate and calcareous shale, siltstone and sandstone. A large quartz-porphyry stock intruded the sediments and extensively altered and mineralized the area. Magnetic surveys indicate other possible untested intrusive centres in the Limousine Butte project.

In June 1999, Nevada Pacific and Newmont Mining completed a joint-venture agreement that covered the Limousine Butte property. Subsequent multiple drill programs and the compilation of historical data led to the identification of five oxide gold zones. In April, Nevada Pacific acquired Newmont’s half-stake in the project.