Solitario Resources announces new gold zones at Golden Crest, South Dakota
Solitario Resources Corp. [NYSE-XPL; TSX-SLR] announced the discovery of three new zones of high-grade surface gold on its Golden Crest project, South Dakota. These zones are named Holland, Top Dollar and Wildcat. Assay results from reconnaissance rock sampling of outcrop, sub-crop and float yielded gold values as high as 57.9. 50.2. 42.7, 32.3 and 21.1 g/t gold within the three zones.
These three zones occur within an area approximately 4 km2 in size, between the Downpour and Sleeping Beauty targets. Assay results from these three zones total 203 samples and represent the final surface grab rock samples collected in the 2023 field season.
Chris Herald, president and CEO, stated: “These are among the highest-grade samples collected during a first pass sampling program at a newly discovered target zone in the history of Golden Crest. It’s amazing that after three field seasons, we are still discovering high-quality drilling targets displaying super high-grade gold values on the surface. We think there is a high probability that these three zones may coalesce into a single massive zone with additional work, just like the Geyser, Spur and Zig Zag zones came together. We now look forward to our drilling program at Golden Crest that is anticipated to begin in the first part of June.”
All of these samples were collected from an arcuate belt of outcropping favorable Mission Canyon Limestone 3.5 km long and up to 1.0 km across. This belt is interpreted to ring the northern flank of a central structural dome cored by the underlying Lodgepole Limestone in the highly mineralized Geyser-Sleeping Beauty zone. This dome is disrupted by a large normal fault on its western margin that may be continuous with the Downpour-Wild Rose fault further north and a prominent fault cutting the Geyser zone to the south. Further mapping and sampling of this structural zone will be a priority in the 2024 field season as it appears to influence the distribution of very high-grade gold mineralization over eight kilometers of strike length.
The newly discovered Holland, Top Dollar and Wildcat Gold zones, as well as 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 contiguous group of mineral claims separate from and 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 these new gold targets.
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 located 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 81.3 million shares outstanding. Solitario’s cash balance and marketable securities stand at approximately US$9.6 million.
Solitario has a long history of committed Environmental, Social and Responsible Governance (ESG) of its business. It is committed to conducting our business in a manner that supports positive environmental and social initiatives and responsible corporate governance.