Armed with $2.3 million in its treasury,
The Vancouver-based junior is zeroing in on the Carlin trend, looking for evidence of deep, high-grade gold mineralization and using Barrick Gold’s Meikle deposit as a geological model. The company holds some 20 sq. km of ground, comprising the South Carlin project, at the southern end of the Carlin trend between
The South Carlin project comprises a group of properties covered by four separate underlying agreements. Joe Kajszo, a geologist and a director of Nevada Pacific, says the project area has seen only limited exploration for surface gold mineralization and remains untested below 400 ft. of surface. The company is exploring for high-grade gold deposits within, and adjacent to, blocks of lower-plate limestone, which may have been faulted or domed close to surface but not exposed.
The project area includes the Woodruff Creek, South Carlin, Tomera Ranch and Tonka properties, known collectively as South Carlin. Nevada Pacific optioned Woodruff Creek from Kennecott Exploration, a division of London-based
The lithological and structural setting of Woodruff Creek is said to resemble that of the nearby Rain mine, where gold mineralization is hosted in solution collapse breccias formed at the contact between the Devil’s Gate limestone and the overlying Webb shale formations close to the west-northwesterly trending Rain fault.
The target for exploration at Woodruff Creek is along the Webb-Devil’s Gate contact, where it is crosscut by northwesterly and north-southerly trending faults.
Nevada Pacific spent US$250,000 on exploration last year. Surface mapping has identified pervasive argillization and iron-oxide staining, and small jasperoid breccia bodies exposed along north-northeasterly and northwesterly oriented structures. Soil and chip geochemical sampling in the altered areas returned low gold values, with elevated arsenic, antimony, barium and mercury values that are interpreted to indicate the effects of hydrothermal activity. Geophysical surveys revealed several prominent gravity highs, which could represent a prospective uplifted limestone basement.
Mafic dykes have been identified at Woodruff Creek, and Kajszo says these can be an effective exploration tool as they are known to occur above mineralization.
Nevada Pacific is conducting chip-sampling and trenching to delineate targets in preparation for an initial phase of four or five drill holes this year.
In July 1998, Nevada Pacific and Kennecott entered a joint agreement to acquire and explore properties in a 1,000-sq.-mile portion of the Carlin trend. Under the agreement, each company will contribute 50% of exploration expenditures on existing properties and half the cost of future acquisitions. Nevada Pacific controls a 100% interest in all properties in which Kennecott participates and manages all reconnaissance, property acquisitions and initial phases of exploration. Kennecott has the right to select specific land areas where it can earn up to a 60% interest by solely spending US$5.2 million on exploration and development. None of these areas can be larger than 8 sq. miles.
The South Carlin, Tomera Ranch, Tonka and Woodruff Creek properties all fall under the Nevada Pacific-Kennecott agreement. Meanwhile, Nevada Pacific continues to review properties within the Carlin trend for potential acquisition.
Earlier this spring, Nevada Pacific inked a deal allowing Newmont to earn up to a 70% interest in its Limousine Butte gold project, which lies along the projected southern extension of the Carlin trend, 40 miles northwest of Ely. Newmont can earn an initial half-interest by spending $1.5 million on exploration over four years, with a minimum of $220,000 to be spent during the first year. A further 20% can be earned by spending an additional $3 million within six years.
The 23-sq.-mile project centres on a large, gold-bearing, hydrothermal system that exhibits alteration features similar to sediment-hosted, structurally controlled gold deposits found in the Carlin trend and elsewhere in the state.
Copper exploration work in the 1960s led to the discovery of a large mineralized deep-seated porphyry complex beneath the valley floor in the southwestern corner of the property. Nevada Pacific recently acquired 13,000 ft. of core that was drilled during that time. While much of the core was not assayed for gold, drilling did encounter significant thicknesses of highly anomalous gold, including up to 767 ft. of 0.016 oz., with individual assays running as high as 0.19 oz.
The buried intrusive has altered and mineralized extensive areas of the surrounding calcareous sandstone and shale units of the Chainman, Joana and Pilot Formations.
Miles of outcropping jasperoids with low gold are said to exist in the same formations, 4.5 miles east of the intrusive centre, along the property’s eastern boundary. During the 1980s, the Alta Gold-Echo Bay joint venture recovered 92,061 oz. from the heap leaching of jasperoid material grading 0.029 oz. at the Golden Butte mine, adjacent to the northwestern corner of the property.
In the mid 1980s, 51 shallow holes were drilled by Keradamax along the eastern margin of the Limousine Butte property in areas of outcropping jasperoid.
Nevada Pacific believes the property is prospective for several styles of gold mineralization: high-grade sedimentary/intrusive-hosted mineralization occurring near structural traps; gold skarn replacement mineralization in limestones near the intrusive; and bulk-minable mineralization at, or near, the contact of vertical and low-angle structures within the shale and limestone units.
Kajszo says Newmont intends to drill Limousine Butte this year, and, toward that end, the major has begun an initial program of geophysics and geochemical sampling.
Nevada Pacific holds several other properties in Nevada, including Blue Basin, which has been optioned to
Moreau project
In addition, the company is conducting a 4,000-ft. program of reverse-circulation (RC) drilling at its fully owned Moreau gold project, near Parker, Ariz. The program is designed to test for gold mineralization associated with a low-angle detachment fault system and the high-angle structures that cut the detachment fault.
Nevada Pacific recently added to its holdings in Montana by optioning the Big Belt project from Kennecott. Under the agreement, Nevada Pacific can earn a 100% interest by spending US$100,000 on exploration. Kennecott retains a back-in right to a 60% interest for a period of three years.
The 17,800-care property is centred on a large, untested, bull’s-eye magnetic anomaly, which is interpreted to represent an ultramafic intrusion covered by a thin veneer of sediment. Nevada Pacific will carry out a 3,000-ft. program of RC drilling to test for mineralization that may be associated with the anomaly.
The company, which began trading in March, has raised $2 million in a public offering of 3.2 million units priced at 65 cents each. A unit consists of one share and a half-share purchase warrant. One whole warrant entitles the owner to buy an additional share at 80 cents for one year.
Nevada Pacific was founded in March 1997 by David Hottman, formerly of Eldorado Gold, and Kajszo, who previously served as vice-president of exploration for Robert Friedland’s Ivanhoe Capital. The two were joined by Curtis Everson, a former exploration manager with Santa Fe Pacific Gold.
As president, Hottman stresses that Nevada Pacific is foc
used on gold exploration.
“We’re in the wealth creation or discovery end of the business, versus wealth exploitation, which is the mining end,” he says, “and we’re looking for high-grade deposits in general.”
Nevada Pacific has 10 million shares outstanding, or 13.3 million fully diluted. At presstime, the company was trading at 35 cents.
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