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Castle Mountain announced results from follow-up drilling at its past-producing Castle Mountain heap-leach gold project in Southeast California. The project has year-round access to Las Vegas 122 kilometers to the northeast; it also has an existing operating permit.
Drill Tracker Weekly is not exclusive to Resource Investing News and is published with permission from Mackie Research Capital Corporation. It highlights drilling results in context with our database of over 10,000 drilling and trenching results. The purpose of this report is to highlight drilling and trenching results that stand out from the pack and compare them to their peer group. This report does not constitute initiation of coverage or a recommendation.
Castle Mountain Mining Company (TSXV:CMM)
Price: $0.41
Market cap: $29 million
Cash estimate: $1.8 million
Project: Castle Mountain
Country: California, US
Ownership: 100 percent
Resources: 149 MT @ 0.64 g/t Au indicated; 52 MT @ 0.61 g/t Au inferred
Project status: Brownfields exploration
- Castle Mountain announced results from the follow-up drilling on its 100% owned past producing Castle Mountain heap leach gold project in southeast California. The project has year round access to Las Vegas 122 kilometres to the northeast. The past producing mine has an existing operating permit.
- Highlights from the current drilling include 30.5 metres grading 9.22 g/t Au and 123.4 metres of 2.43 g/t Au in the Lucky John zone. The drilling was designed to follow up two anomalously high-grade holes drilled in 2014, the best of which returned 74.4 metres grading 9.11 g/t Au (CMM-060) south of the backfilled JSLA pit. The Company reports true widths of between 60 and 90 percent of core length. However, two “twin holes” CMM-060 deviated off course failing to intersect mineralization. This may indicate drilling parallel to a narrow steeply dipping high-grade structure that may explain the unusually long and high grade interval in the early holes. Additional drilling in this area will help clarify the importance of the higher-grade intervals in the heap leap operation.
- In December 2013, the Company announced 43-101 compliant indicated resource estimation using a $1,300 gold price and a 0.17 g/t Au cut-off of 149 million tonnes grading 0.64 g/t Au with an additional 52.3 million tonnes at 0.61 g/t Au in the inferred class. The 47 drill holes completed to date in 2014/2015 are largely focused in the Lucky John and South JSLA backfilled pit and are not included in the resource estimation.
- The current drilling is designed to follow up and understand the nature of high-grade intervals, as well as testing for near surface mineralization to reduce strip ratio which is currently 4.3:1. Recent metallurgical studies indicate 81% gold recoveries from heap leach grade (<5.0 g/t Au) run of mine, while averaging 98% in a standard mill/gravity/leach circuit. This compares to the 77% heap leach recoveries reported in the past production. Testing down to 300 metres indicates the rock is soft to medium and can be processed with low cyanide consumption without requiring agglomeration.
Development history (Viceroy/MK joint venture): Past production 1.24 m ounces Au @ 0.043 oz/ton Au
Current holes: 30.5 metres @ 9.22 g/t Au; 123.4 metres @ 2.43 g/t Au; 67.7 metres @ 1.27 g/t Au
Risks Analysis
Data contained in DRILL TRACKER WEEKLY is based on early stage exploration activity. The results are obtained at the very early stages of exploration and therefore, individual results may not be reproducible with additional trenching or drilling, nor may the results ultimately lead to the discovery of an economic deposit. Delineation of a resource body requires an extensive data gathering exercise according to guidelines set out in National Instrument 43-101 before investors can be reliably assured of a competent body of mineralization that may be of economic interest. DRILL TRACKER WEEKLY is designed to highlight individual trench or drill results, which stand out as being materially anomalous and are particularly worth of note – a type of early warning flag for a particular property that warrants further attention. Hence, DRILL TRACKER WEEKLY does not provide a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a specific equity – it is an information reference source to help quantify the meaning and relevance of early stage exploration results.
Relevant Disclosures Applicable to: Drill Tracker Weekly
- The research analyst or a member of the research analyst’s household owns and/or has options to acquire shares of the subject issuer. At the date of this release the author, Wayne Hewgill, owns shares in the following companies: Fission Uranium Corp. (TSX.FCU), Balmoral Resources Ltd. (TSX.BAR)
- Balmoral Resources Ltd. is currently covered at Mackie Research Capital Corp. by analyst Peter Campbell
Analyst Certification
I, Wayne Hewgill certify that the information in this report is sourced through public documents that are believed to be reliable but accuracy and completeness as represented in this report cannot be guaranteed. The author has not received payment from any of the companies covered in this report. This report makes no recommendations to buy, sell or hold. Each analyst of Mackie Research Capital Corporation whose name appears in this report hereby certifies that (i) the recommendations and opinions expressed in this research report accurately reflect the analyst’s personal views and (ii) no part of the research analyst’s compensation was or will be directly or indirectly related to the specific conclusions or recommendations expressed in this research report.