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.
Fremont Gold (TSXV: FRE) announced that it entered into a purchase option agreement with Pilot Gold, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Gold (TSX: LGD), to acquire 100% of the past-producing Griffon gold project.
Griffon is located in White Pine County, Nevada, specifically at the southern end of the Cortez Trend. It is comprised of 89 unpatented mining claims.
“We know that Carlin deposits have the potential to be very large mineralizing systems and we look forward to testing that potential in the new year”
Blaine Monaghan, Fremont CEO
First drilled in 1988, a limited amount of shallow drilling focused on delineating the Discovery Ridge and Hammer Ridge deposits, leaving the remainder of the property essentially untested. Later on, from 1997 to 1999, Alta Gold produced approximately 90,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 1.03 grams/tonne from Discovery Ridge and Hammer Ridge in an oxide heap-leach operation.
According to Fremont, Griffon hosts numerous gravity, soil, and stratigraphic targets. In the miner’s view, the Pilot Shale horizon – the primary gold host at Fiore Gold’s nearby Pan Mine – has not been adequately tested, and the Joana/Chainman transitional horizon, which hosts gold at Griffon, may be concealed underneath and within the Blackrock fault.
“It isn’t often that a project of this quality comes along in Nevada,” said Blaine Monaghan, Freemont’s CEO, in a media statement. “We screened numerous advanced-stage gold projects in the Western U.S., projects with the potential to host an economic deposit with a minimum of 1 million ounces of gold, and Griffon emerged as the top gold project.”
To acquire the property, Fremont has to make cash payments of $350,000 in different instalments and issue Liberty a number of common shares in the company.
