Nevada King Gold drills 4.32 g/t gold over 9.3 metres at Wild West Target, Atlanta Gold Mine, Nevada
Nevada King Gold Corp. [TSXV: NKG; OTC: NKGFF] reported the start of its Phase III drill program with the mobilization of a reverse-circulation (RC) drill to conduct drilling across the recently discovered Wild West Target (WWT) at its 5,166 hectares (51.6km2), 100%-owned Atlanta Gold Mine Project along the prolific Battle Mountain Trend 264km northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Today’s AT24WS-84 (4.32 g/t Au over 9.1m) was sited 60 metres west of previously released AT24WS-83 (4.67 g/t Au over 42.7m) and represents the westernmost intercept of high-grade gold mineralization to date at the Wild West Zone and at the Atlanta Project. AT24WS-84 bottomed in mineralization, encountering 10m of mineralized rock, before the drill rig reached its maximum depth capabilities.
AT24WS-83 successfully recovered in both the upper and lower high-grade zones, resulting in higher average grade and much greater thickness, while today’s AT24WS-84 penetrated the upper high-grade zone but was lost at the top of the intervening lower high-grade zone. Hole AT24WS-83 returned 7.6 metres of 2.80 g/t gold.
The company is mobilizing a Schramm 685 drill rig, a powerful drill capable of greater depth penetration, to chase the mineralization seen in AT24WS-84 further westward and to greater depth across the WWT. Initial drill pads have been prepared that are designed to test the WWT a further 500 metres west of its current drilled extent.
As currently defined, the recently identified WWT area is 500-metre long in a north-south direction and 200m wide, remaining open to the west. The target is located on the west side of the West Atlanta Fault #2 (WAF2) in an area previously thought to be unmineralized, but where recent drilling has revealed thick, high-grade mineralization extending well west of the Atlanta Resource Zone.
As mentioned above, AT24WS-84 did recover through the upper high-grade zone. Hole AT24WS-81, drilled 100 metres to the northwest, did not reach the mineralized zone, but did encounter elevated Au-Ag-As-Mo, similar to that seen above the gold zones in nearby holes. The down-hole tracer element gradients seen in both AT24WS-84 and AT24WS-81 strongly suggests mineralization extends further to the west.
The company plans to mobilize a second drill rig to Atlanta in the coming weeks to begin a 59-hole regional pass of 12 regional drill targets.
Cal Herron, Exploration Manager of Nevada King, stated, “The WWZ is situated along a major east-west basement lineament interpreted from gravity data that projects approximately 3 kilometres eastward from the Silver Park, Mustang, and Outlaw Targets through the centre of the Wild West Target and into the Atlanta resource zone where it connects to the North Fault, which is an important structural control associated with high-grade mineralization immediately northwest of the pit. Nevada King holes AT23WS-44 (11.64 g/t Au over 108.2m, including 37.16 g/t Au over 29.0m), AT23WS-22 (5.63 g/t Au over 42.7m, including 28.57 g/t Au over 7.6m) and AT24WS-83 (4.67 g/t Au over 42.7m) all occur along this trend.
“A second, NW-trending deep gravity-inferred structure cuts through the centre of the WWZ where it intersects the E-W gravity trend and then continues down the axial plane of the South Quartzite Ridge Target to the southeast. Generally speaking, structural intersections commonly provide favourable loci for metals concentration, so the conjunction of major structures we see in the WWT is a good sign, particularly since it coincides with a strong CSAMT low resistivity zone interpreted as a shallow intrusive body.
“Hydrothermal fluids associated with shallow, low-resistivity intrusions are closely associated with gold mineralization throughout the current resource area, along the East Ridge Target, and at the northern end of the South Quartzite Ridge Target. As we continue to move westward with deeper holes into previously untested territory, we look forward to seeing what Mother Nature has in store for us.”
The Atlanta Mine is a historical gold-silver producer with a NI 43-101 compliant pit-constrained resource of 460,000 oz Au in the measured and indicated category (11.0M tonnes at 1.3 g/t) plus an inferred resource of 142,000 oz Au (5.3M tonnes at 0.83 g/t).