Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
Corvus Gold has announced a new discovery at the Lynnda Strip target at its 36.5-sq.-km Mother Lode project in the state’s Greater Bullfrog gold district in Nevada.
The company has released assay results for hole CH20-011, which returned 196.6 metres of 0.44 g/t gold, starting at 263.7 metres, and includes higher-grade intervals, such as 4.5 metres of 1.44 g/t gold and 44.2 metres of 0.9 g/t gold.
According to Corvus, the Lynnda Strip area features oxide gold mineralization underneath approximately 150 metres of cover and is 2.5 km north-northeast of the existing Mother Lode deposit.
“The ongoing new discovery exploration work across the Bullfrog gold district continues to produce encouraging results, highlighting the potential of this re-emerging Nevada gold district,” Jeffrey Pontius, the company’s president and CEO, said in a release.
“The initial results at the Lynnda Strip suggest that the system could be amenable to open pit mining and heap leach processing. Corvus is continuing with the evaluation of this exciting new discovery on its ground and the value that it can bring to our shareholders as well as continuing to pursue our other new discoveries across the district on our large, 130 sq. km, 100%-owned land package.”
Follow-up drilling is planned for the upper part of this new system
The geophysical signature seen at Lynnda has also been traced 3 km to the west, at the Twisted Canyon target, where there is a coincident surface gold geochemical anomaly.
Corvus has also developed two new gold targets – Hidden Valley and East Prospector – on its Snake claims, east of AngloGold Ashanti’s Silicon discovery.
Corvus Gold owns the adjoining 36.5-sq. km Mother Lode and 90.5-sq.-km North Bullfrog projects in southern Nevada’s Greater Bullfrog district, host to epithermal gold systems with an additional sediment-hosted gold discovery at Mother Lode.
Total measured and indicated resources at Mother Lode (including both sulphide and oxide material) stand at 53.4 million tonnes grading 0.68 g/t gold for a total of 1.2 million oz. with a further 16.2 million inferred tonnes at 0.46 g/t gold, containing 241,000 oz. gold. These are derived using cut-off grades between 0.06 g/t gold and 0.63 g/t gold.
In 2018, the company published a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on a combined heap leach and sulphide operation at Mother Lode and North Bullfrog.
The 9-year open pit opeation would produce a total of 2.5 million gold oz. and 3.5 million oz. of silver at total cash costs of $680 per oz. of gold-equivalent. With an initial capital cost estimate of $424 million, the net present value estimate, at a 5% discount rate, stands at $587 million.
Midday Friday, Corvus’ stock was up 4.7% on the TSE. The company has a C$497 million market capitalization.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)
