Giustra’s Fiore Gold looks to extend life of Pan
Fiore Gold Ltd. [F-TSXV, FIOGF-OTCQB] has released the results from the first six holes of its 2018 drill program at its Pan Mine in Nevada. The Pan Mine is a Carlin-style, open-pit, heap-leach mine in east-central Nevada, approximately 28 km southeast of the town of Eureka, on the prolific Battle-Mountain – Eureka gold trend. This is part of a longer program aimed at expanding the resource and reserve base at Pan.
Fiore Gold, launched by financier Frank Giustra, is an Americas-focused gold producer with an initial plan to produce 150,000 ounces annually, and later emerge as a mid-tier company. Its key Nevada assets are an open pit heap leach operation known as the Pan Mine.
It also has the Goldrock property, a 200 km2 land package along the Battle Mountain and Eureka trends. The company is hoping that production at Pan will increase from a target of around 40,000 ounces in 2018 to 50,000 ounces in 2019. Production during the month of October, 2017 was 1,809 ounces the company said recently.
The current drill program at Pan consists of 3,500 metres of reverse circulation drilling aimed at expanding reserves and resources near the North Pit, which hosts the majority of the silica-rich rocky ore at Pan. Drilling is also planned for the Central area of the deposit to expand existing resources there as well as test new targets. Mining is currently taking place in both the rocky North Pan Zone and clayey South Pan Zone, with the run-of-mine ores blended on the leach pad.
The first six holes of the program were drilled near the southern end of the North Pit, and were intended to test the potential to expand the existing oxide reserves both at depth and laterally beyond the current reserve boundaries.
Highlights from the first six holes include Hole PND18-06, which returned 79.2 metres of 55 g/t gold (260 feet of 0.016 oz/ton gold).
“These first six holes show excellent potential to increase the resource and reserve base both at depth and laterally beyond the current mine plan boundaries,” said Fiore CEO Tim Warman.
“We’re extremely pleased with the success rate so far, with each of the first six holes encountering mineable widths of gold mineralization above the mine cutoff grade” he said.
“This is a very good start to a program that we’re confident will allow us to extend operations at Pan well beyond the current mine life.”
On Tuesday, Fiore Gold shares were unchanged at 69 cents. They are trading in a 52-week range of $1.66 and 60 cents.
A 2017 Pan Mine Feasibility Study pegged proven and probable reserves at 318,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 0.51 g/t gold.