Liberty Gold updates Goldstrike and Critical Minerals projects
Liberty Gold Corp. [TSX: LGD; OTCQX: LGDTF] provided a year-end update on the ongoing activities designed to surface long-term value from the Goldstrike Oxide Gold Project, Antimony Ridge discovery and the recently acquired Gage Critical Metals Project in southwest Utah.
Jon Gilligan, President & CEO of Liberty Gold, commented, “Earlier this year, Liberty Gold evaluated a range of strategic alternatives for its Goldstrike-related assets, including potential separation structures. As that review progressed, and as market conditions evolved, it became clear that pursuing some of those pathways would not be the most value-enhancing course for shareholders at this time. As a result, the Company has refined its approach to these assets and will manage them in a manner that supports disciplined capital allocation and management focus across the portfolio.”
Liberty Gold has revised its strategy related to the Goldstrike, Antimony Ridge and Gage as follows: 128 claims to the east of Goldstrike, that cover the Antimony Ridge Project area, will be held separately from the Goldstrike Project. Drill permitting for an additional 16 sites within Antimony Ridge has been completed and those sites are drill ready.
Claims and State mineral leases from Liberty Gold’s recently acquired Gage Critical Metals Project will be combined with Antimony Ridge to create a critical metals investment opportunity.
Liberty Gold is actively reviewing and advancing divestiture options for these combined critical minerals asset.
Goldstrike Project: The company has added recently, 35 claims to the west and north of Goldstrike to cover new high potential oxide gold exploration targets areas. We continue to advance Goldstrike including acquiring process water rights, reviewing and acquiring nearby land opportunities, updating internal economic studies and effective strategies for long-term value creation.
Antimony Ridge Project: Antimony Ridge is a zone of extensive surface-exposed antimony and gold mineralization located about 5 km east of the main Goldstrike resource. Initial outcrop sampling has obtained values of up to 5.8% antimony that is hosted in strongly brecciated and silicified zones controlled by high angle faults and lithologic contacts.
Mineralization dips 20-25 degrees northeast and is open at depth with a transition from mixed sulfide at surface to complete sulfide at depth expected. Surface antimony exposures are clearly defined by soils data which indicate an overall mineralized strike length of >3 km. The main targets at Antimony Ridge are fully permitted/bonded and ready to drill.
Gage Project: As part of a review of critical minerals in proximity to the Antimony Ridge Project, several priority targets for acquisition were identified with the goal to increase the scale of the company’s critical minerals asset portfolio. As part of this strategy, Liberty Gold has secured 181 unpatented mining claims located on Bureau of Land Management lands and two Utah State leases for a total area of 5,916 hectares. These newly acquired lands (100% Liberty Gold controlled), along a north-west trending critical metals belt greater than 5 km in length, cover five historic mines and over 20 previously-identified critical minerals prospects, entirely surrounding the past producing Apex Mine, currently owned by Teck American Inc.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Apex Mine produced copper, zinc, lead and silver from the 1890’s to the 1950’s and in the early 1980’s, it was identified that the orebody also contained significant values of gallium and germanium along with indium, rhenium and antimony. This underground mine became the only primary producer of gallium and germanium in the United States when Musto Explorations Ltd. brought it into production in the mid 1980’s and again with Hecla Mining Company in the 1990’s.
Liberty Gold is actively reviewing and advancing divestiture options for its critical minerals assets.
Liberty Gold is a U.S. focused gold development company building and advancing a pipeline of gold assets in the Great Basin, one of the world’s most productive and mining friendly gold regions. The company’s flagship asset is the 100%-owned Black Pine Oxide Gold Project in southern Idaho, a large scale, past-producing run-of-mine heap leach system being advanced through feasibility and permitting toward a modern open-pit mining operation.
Liberty Gold also controls the Goldstrike Project in Utah, which remains an important part of the company’s U.S. gold asset portfolio.