Lahontan Gold receives BLM approval exploration plans for Santa Fe Project, Nevada
Lahontan Gold Corp. [TSXV: LG; OTCQB: LGCXF] reported that the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has published its decision record (DR), finding of no significant impact (FONSI), and approval of the company’s exploration plan of operations (EPOO) for its Santa Fe mine project, on the BLM’s website.
This decision concludes the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental assessment (EA) process and authorizes Lahontan to move forward with its greatly expanded exploration drilling and mine development program at Santa Fe.
The recently approved EPOO allows Lahontan to conduct exploration drilling across a 12 km2 area of the Santa Fe mine project, enabling the company to test multiple new targets, well beyond the currently defined gold and silver resources. Previous Lahontan drilling programs focused on validating historical drill results, defining and expanding resources adjacent to the past-producing open pits, and collecting data to support detailed mine planning and scheduling.
With the EPOO in place, Lahontan can now initiate true exploration programs across the broader project area. The EPOO encompasses over 700 permitted drill holes targeting well-defined geologic and geochemical anomalies, as well as previously drilled areas that returned significant gold and silver intercepts that require follow-up drilling.
Priority targets include the Pinnacles area, hosted in a similar geologic setting to Fortitude Gold’s nearby Isabella Pearl mine, as well as important historic drilling at the Guzzler target south of the Santa Fe open pit, along with multiple untested zones between the known resource areas at Santa Fe
Kimberly Ann, Lahontan Gold executive chair, founder, CEO and president, commented: “Receiving approval of the Santa Fe mine project EPOO represents a landmark milestone for Lahontan. Until now, the company’s exploration activities were limited to a five-acre disturbance area, significantly restricting its ability to step out from known resources and fully assess the exploration potential of the Santa Fe mine project.
“With the approval of the EPOO, Lahontan can now explore a 12.2 km2 area encompassing multiple well-defined geological and geochemical targets located between and adjacent to existing gold and silver resources. The expanded permit area also allows for drill testing of the historical heap leach pads, which may contain remnant mineralization of potential economic interest.
This approval positions the company to evaluate the broader gold and silver endowment of the Santa Fe mine project and to unlock the full potential of its strategic land position in Nevada’s Walker Lane. Lahontan would also like to thank the staff of the Carson City office of the BLM for their efficient and timely completion of the EPOO.”
Lahontan Gold holds, through its U.S. subsidiaries, four gold and silver exploration properties in the Walker Lane of Nevada. Lahontan’s flagship property, the 28.3 km2 Santa Fe mine project, had past production of 359,202 ounces of gold and 702,067 ounces of silver between 1988 and 1995 from open-pit mines utilizing heap leach processing.
The Santa Fe mine has a CIM 43-101-compliant indicated mineral resource of 1,539,000 ounces gold equivalent (AuEq) (48,393,000 tonnes grading 0.92 g/t gold and 7.18 g/t silver, together grading 0.99 g/t AuEq) and an inferred mineral resource of 411,000 oz AuEq (16.76 million tonnes grading 0.74 g/t Au and 3.25 g/t Ag, together grading 0.76 g/t AuEq), all pit constrained (AuEq is inclusive of recovery. The company plans to continue advancing the Santa Fe mine project toward production, update the Santa Fe preliminary economic assessment and drill test its satellite West Santa Fe project during 2025.
Mineral resources are reported using a cut-off grade of 0.15 g/t AuEq for oxide resources and 0.60 g/t AuEq for non-oxide resources. AuEq for the purpose of cut-off grade and reporting the mineral resources is based on the following assumptions: gold price of US$1,950/oz gold; silver price of US$23.50/oz silver; and oxide gold recoveries ranging from 28% to 79%, oxide silver recoveries ranging from 8 per cent to 30%, and non-oxide gold and silver recoveries of 71%.
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