NuLegacy says drill results may put more focus on closely watched Nevada gold play

By Peter Kennedy

NuLegacy Gold Corp. [NUG-TSXV; NULGF-OTCQX] released some encouraging results Tuesday January 9 from a Nevada exploration property that has been tipped as a possible gold mine of the future.

Exploration on NuLegacy’s wholly-owned Redhill property is being closely watched because of its proximity to Barrick Gold Corp.‘s [ABX-TSX, NYSE] Goldrush Mine, which is located about 7 km southeast of Barrick’s Cortez operations near Elko. Ranking as one of the largest high grade gold discoveries to have been found anywhere on the planet in recent years, Goldrush is expected to yield about 440,000 of gold annually, starting in 2021. Goldrush and Redhilll are both located on the Cortez Gold trend, an alignment of deposits that ranks among the world’s most productive gold mining.

Since it optioned the property from Barrick in 2010, NuLegacy has discovered the Iceberg and Avocado Carlin-style gold deposits at Redhill and has identified several more highly prospective exploration targets that are being drilled this year. NuLegacy is now an 11%-owned Barrick affiliate after earning a 70% project interest and electing to acquire the major’s remaining 30% stake. OceanaGold Corp. [OGC-TSX; OGDCF-OTC; AUS, NZ] also owns 16% of NuLegacy.

Iceberg is an established exploration target of 90 to 110 million tonnes of 0.9 to 1.1 g/t gold, a figure that is conceptual in nature as the company has yet to complete sufficient work to announce a resource estimate that would meet with NI 43-101 standards of regulatory compliance. However, it hopes to rectify that situation before the end of the first quarter of 2018.

In September, 2016 NuLegacy said assay results had confirmed that a target previously known as the Avocado anomaly hosts a Carlin-type deposit. (Carlin-style deposits feature micron sized-gold particles that are not visible to the naked eye). The company said drilling located 1,750 metres north west of the Iceberg gold deposit intersected a massive bloom of gold, grading 0.26 g/t gold over 199.7 metres, including 24 and 35-metre intervals of 0.5 g/t material, and 10 and 13-metre intervals of better than 1.0 g/t gold material.

“This is the second Carlin-type gold system we have confirmed on the property. It is at the same depth as Barrick Gold’s multi-million ounce Goldrush deposit, just 9 km to the northwest and on trend with the Avocado and Iceberg deposits,” said Dr. Roger Steininger, NuLegacy’s chief geologist.

A 2017 summer drilling program added two new gold zone discoveries – the Serena and VIO zones (described by the company as the only new gold discovery in Nevada during 2017) – to the inventory of gold-bearing zones on the Red Hill property, while expanding or adding to the previous discoveries in the North and Central Iceberg deposits.

On Tuesday, the company announced that one of two core holes drilled into the West Avocado zone during a fall exploration program encountered encouraging gold mineralization.

In April 2017, the company said it is possible that there are two distinct gold systems referred to as the West and East Avocado.

The company said AW17-05c, drilled 120 metres east of last year’s discovery holes AVB-02 and AVB-04c, intersected 32.5 metres of 0.61 g/t gold.

The company said results establish continuity at the Avocado Zone by defining a 120-metre corridor of gold mineralization that is open for at least another 600 metres to the east and northeast, towards mineralization established last year in the East Avocado discovery where drill hole AV16-03 encountered 25.9 metres of 1.01 g/t gold.

Fourteen additional holes, drilled in the North, Serena and Vio, and Western Slope zones are out for assay and will be reported when received and fully evaluated by the geological team in Reno, the company said.

“Everywhere we drill on this property we find more gold,” said NuLegacy CEO James Anderson. “But trying to focus is difficult.” It is now hoped that this latest discovery may concentrate NuLegacy’s exploration efforts in 2018.

On Tuesday, NuLegacy shares eased 5% or $0.01 to trade at 19 cents in a 52-week range of 34.5 cents and 16 cents.