Solitario discovers significant new gold zone – Sleeping Beauty – over 1,600 metres, South Dakota
Solitario Resources Corp. [NYSE –XPL; TSX-SLR] report that it has discovered another high-grade gold zone on its Golden Crest project, named Sleeping Beauty, in South Dakota. Recently received assay results from reconnaissance rock sampling of outcrop, sub-crop and float from the 2023 field season yielded gold values as high as 39.6, 24.6 and 16.6 g/t gold.
Sleeping Beauty is situated on a topographic plateau underlain by the same favorable limestone found at the high-grade Geyer gold zone, which is located about 500 meters to the south. The two zones are separated by a shallow valley, where mineralization is considerably weaker at surface and rock outcrops are absent. Although the Sleeping Beauty zone has an apparent east-west orientation, the overall trend of mineralization over a larger scale area is thought to be generally in a northeast-southwest direction.
Approximately 135 samples were collected and assayed from the Sleeping Beauty topographic plateau area. Twenty-eight of these samples assayed greater than 1.0 gpt gold, with 65 samples greater than 0.2 g/t gold. Within the 1600-meter-long trend, there are five clusters of higher-grade gold. The highest-grade cluster measures 170 by 260 metres and is open in all directions. The average grade of all 14 grab samples collected in this high-grade cluster is 7.12 g/t gold.
Chris Herald, President and CEO, stated: “In the late summer of 2023 we began to focus on a large area north of Geyser, as the north side of Geyser was open to expansion. This area, that we now call Sleeping Beauty, has developed into one of the largest target areas yet discovered at Golden Crest. Although sampling is still in the early days at Sleeping Beauty, we believe that it will develop into a major high-grade target area with the additional work we have planned for 2024. Importantly, we anticipate reporting our final assay results from the 2023 field season over the next several weeks.”
The Sleeping Beauty and Geyser gold zones are located on Solitario’s new Ponderosa Plan of Operations (POO) in the easternmost portion of Solitario’s consolidated Golden Crest property. The Ponderosa area is a non-contiguous group of mineral claims not covered by the original Golden Crest POO but is a part of Solitario’s 100%-owned Golden Crest project area in South Dakota. The new Ponderosa POO proposes low-impact core drilling to test the Geyser gold zone and several other new gold targets.
In December 2023, the United States Forest Service (USFS) issued its final Environmental Assessment (EA) and Draft Decision and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) on Solitario’s proposed Golden Crest drilling program. As a result of this decision, no additional environmental studies beyond USFS’s comprehensive EA is required. Currently, the USFS is finalizing its response to objections to their FONSI decision.
Solitario’s 100%-owned Golden Crest properties in South Dakota constitute strategic land holdings along the western and southwestern extensions of the Homestake-Wharf mining district that has produced approximately 52 million ounces of gold and contains another 30 million ounces in historical resources (not SK-1300 or NI-4301 compliant). The project area is in a safe jurisdiction with highly developed infrastructure, an unbroken 150-year record of continuous gold mining, a skilled mining workforce, and a history of high-grade, underground mineable gold deposits.
Solitario is a natural resource exploration company 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 (Teck Resources 50%) in the high-grade Lik zinc deposit in Alaska and a 39% joint venture interest (Nexa Resources 61%) on the high-grade Florida Canyon zinc project in Peru. At Florida Canyon, Solitario is carried to production through its joint venture arrangement with Nexa. Solitario’s Management and Directors hold approximately 9.3% (excluding options) of the company’s 79.1 million shares outstanding. Solitario’s cash balance and marketable securities stand at approximately US$8.7 million.