Solitario CEO pleased by gold recovery results in South Dakota
Solitario Resources Corp. [SLR-TSX, XPL-NYSE] said it has received favourable metallurgical gold recovery and test results from its Golden Crest project in South Dakota. The company said bottle roll metallurgical testing was conducted on 20 mineralized intervals from 2024 drilling. Average gold recoveries were approximately 69% from nine samples from hole GC-003 and 66% for nine samples from GC-008.
“The gold we intersected in the upper limestone rocks and the deeper lower Deadwood formation is very amenable to standard industry extraction methods,’’ said Solitaro President and CEO Chris Herald. “We can confidently move forward with our 2025 drilling program knowing that the mineralization we have identified to date appears to be metallurgically similar to the nearby Wharf-Homestake gold-district.”
Solitario is focused on high-quality Tier-1 gold and zinc exploration projects. In addition to its South Dakota property holdings, Solitario holds a 50% joint venture interest with Teck Resources Ltd. (TECK.B-TSX, TECK.A-TSX, TECK-NYSE) (50%) in the high-grade Like zinc deposit in Alaska, and a 39% joint venture interest with Nexa Resources (61%) in the high grade Florida Canyon zinc project in Peru. At Forida Canyon, Solitario is carried to production via its joint venture arrangement with Nexa.
In a press release on February 18, 2025, Solitario said the 2024 drilling program at its Golden Crest project was a resounding success. It said drilling results support the notion that Solitario’s 36,500-acre land position my be a mirror image of the prolific Homestake – Wharf gold system. “Signficant gold mineralization was discovered in four different widely-spaced areas,’’ the company said. “Six of the eleven holes drilled intersected gold grades in excess of 1.0 g/t, including the last drill hole (GC-011) that intersected 2.68 metres of grade 4.69 g/t.
In the nearly historic Homestake – Wharf mining camp, with an overall gold endowment approaching 95 million ounces, there are six geological environments in which gold was deposited. Drillng at Golden Crest intersected significant gold values in four of these deposit types, and strong indirect evidence that the fifth and sixth deposit types are present.
The company said drilling is scheduled to begin on May 27, 2025. The company said this year’s drilling program will occur in two phases. Phase 1.0 consists of offset drilling of mineralization discovered in the 2024 drilling campaign and new untested targets within the approved Golden Crest Plan of Operations. Phase 2.0 drilling will be conducted with in the Ponderosa Plan of Operations, pending permit approvals. “We anticipate that two irgs will be operating concurrently towards the end of summer and into the fall.’’
Solitario shares were unchanged at 83 cents on Tuesday. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $1.30 and 72 cents.