Nevgold stakes ground near Hercules porphyry copper find, shares up
Nevgold Inc. [NAU-TSXV, NAUFF-OTC QX, 5E50-Frankfurt] has staked a large property position that lies contiguous to a major new copper porphyry discovery reported by Hercules Silver Corp. [BIG-TSXV, BADEF-OTCQB, 8Q7-FWB] in Western Idaho.
Nevgold shares advanced on the news, rising 5.2% or $0.02 to 40.5 cents on volume of 290,500. The shares currently trade in a 52-week range of 48 cents and 24 cents.
Nevgold said the newly staked Zeus Copper project covers 20 square kilometres (2,000 hectares) and is located 20 kilometers southwest of the Hercules discovery, which it notes has attracted the interest of Barrick Gold Corp. [ABX-TSX, GOLD-NYSE], which currently holds a 15.09% stake in Hercules Silver.
The Zeus Copper Project covers some of the most prospective ground in the Hercules Copper Trend, Nevgold said in a press release. This area of Idaho, named the “Mineral District,” was a significant historical copper producer that supported a smelting operation and hosts numerous historical mine workings, Nevgold said.
Nevgold has staked the Zeus project just months after Hercules Silver confirmed a major new copper porphyry discovery at its Hercules property.
In an October 10, 2023 news release Hercules said hole HER-23-05, the first hole to test a large-scale blind chargeability anomaly intersected 185.29 metres of 0.84% copper and 111 ppm molybdenum from 246 metres to 431.2 metres, including 45.33 metres of 1.94% copper. The newly discovered porphyry system is situated below rhyolite-hosted silver mineralization defined by over 300 historical drill holes.
The company said HER-23-05 represents the first significant porphyry copper system discovered in the state of Idaho, which breaks the discovery gap between British Columbia and Nevada, presenting an entirely new district for porphyry exploration in a tier 1 jurisdiction.
The Hercules project is a disseminated silver-lead-zinc system with 28,000 metres of historical drilling across 3.5 kilometres of strike. The additional discovery of a new porphyry copper system at depth in 2023 adds significant upside potential to the property, Hercules has said.
In November, 2023, Barrick Gold announced that it had increased its stake in Hercules to 15.09% by purchasing 7.0 million warrants to buy common shares of Hercules for $6.58 million. The warrants were immediately exercised at their exercise price of 11 cents per Hercules share.
On April 3, 2024, Hercules shares were priced at 81 cents and currently trade in a 52-week range of $1.62 and 15 cents.
Nevgold said the geological mapping compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey indicates that the Zeus Project is underlain by the same geology encountered at the Hercules Project. It said numerous examples of copper mineralization and copper porphyry alteration signatures were encountered by Nevgold geologists during the recent staking campaign.
The Zeus project is located 120 kilometres northwest of Boise, Idaho and 40 kilometres northwest of Nevgold’s Nutmeg Mountain gold project. “Due to our presence in this region of Idaho with Nutmeg Mountain, our 100%-owned resource-stage, oxide, heap-leach gold project, our technical team had a very strong understanding of the regional geology,’’ said Nevgold CEO Brandon Bonaficio.