Vancouver — Joint-venture partners Fronteer Development Group (FRG-T, FRG-x) and AuEx Ventures (XAU-T, AUXVF-o) are hitting long gold intercepts at the Long Canyon project in Elko Cty., Nev.
The partners believe that Long Canyon may be part of a new gold trend in Nevada, where for years, the gold-rich Carlin trend has been the exploration focus. At Long Canyon, which sits 120 km east of Elko in the Pequop mountain range, exploration has revealed a multi-kilometre-long gold-in-soil anomaly. Mineralization occurs in stratabound near-surface zones and is all oxide.
Drilling has proven up 1.7 km of strike; the system is still open in all directions and the strong gold-in-soil anomaly extends for another 500 metres of as-yet-undrilled area to the southwest.
The latest results from Long Canyon continue to show gold mineralization over good widths. Hole 132 returned the longest intercept, hitting 3.16 grams gold per tonne over 59.5 metres from 87 metres down-hole, including two 3-metre intercepts grading 7.84 grams gold and a 4.6-metre segment averaging 7.08 grams gold.
Hole 134 also returned promising numbers: 6.99 grams gold over 13.7 metres from 124 metres depth, including 7.6 metres grading 10.26 grams gold. Hole 103C hit 19.8 metres grading 5.19 grams gold from 50 metres and hole 123 returned 2.85 grams gold over 27.4 metres from 69 metres.
In late September, hole 129 extended the strike length at Long Canyon 400 metres to the northeast when it returned 2.53 grams gold over 33.5 metres, starting 93 metres down-hole. And hole 113 helped to further define a new area of mineralization called the Shadow zone, which runs parallel to the main zone to the northwest, when it hit 1.68 grams gold over 73.2 metres, starting 75 metres down-hole.
The current drilling program is expected to last well into November, with work focused on infill drilling toward the northeast and the south, as well as further testing the Shadow zone.
Fronteer completed its 51% earn-in on the project in September after investing US$5 million in just over two years. On earn-in, Fronteer declined its right to earn an additional 14% by providing sole financing for the project through to completion of a feasibility study. Fronteer and AuEx are now sharing in continuing costs proportionate to ownership.
Fronteer has proposed an initial joint-venture budget for Long Canyon of almost US$4 million, which will see activities through to March 2009.
The news, which came out on a day when the TSX Composite Index lost 757 points, did not help either company’s share price. Fronteer lost 2 to close at $2.15; the junior was trading above $12 a year ago. AuEx’s share price fell 15 to 99; the company has a 52- week trading range of 80-$3.05.
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