Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
New drill results from Nevada King Gold (TSXV: NKG) returned high grades and confirmed mineralization lies relatively flat across the Atlanta project’s central part.
Highlight hole AT23NS-120C cut 53.8 metres grading 4.1 grams gold per tonne and 32.9 grams silver from 15.4 metres under the pit floor, including 3 metres at 17.9 grams gold and 63 grams silver, the company reported Monday.
That hole, among 20 reverse circulation and one core hole were drilled at Atlanta along the eastern boundary of the Atlanta Mine fault zone, which is also being used for stage two of Nevada King’s ongoing metallurgical test work. The project is located 264 km northeast of Las Vegas, in the prolific Battle Mountain Trend.
Shares in Nevada King gained 8.4% to C$0.39 apiece on Monday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at C$132.2 million. Its shares traded in a 52-week range of C$0.20 to C$0.48.
“There are two distinct types of intrusive or silica breccia units found at Atlanta,” Cal Herron, Nevada King’s exploration manager, said in a release. “One (is) associated with altered dolomite that rarely hosts gold mineralization outside of the resource zone and the second (is) related to rhyolitic intrusions, which does often host gold mineralization.”
The latest intersections come after a summer of exploration returned promising results at Atlanta, which hosts a past-producing open-pit gold mine where Standard Slag produced 110,000 oz. of gold and 800,000 oz. of silver from 1975 to 1985. Companies including Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI), Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) and Meadow Bay Gold drilled more than 40,000 metres at the site since the 1990s.
Another highlight includes 35.1 metres at 3.59 grams gold and 37.1 grams silver, and 3 metres of 18.88 grams gold and 48.2 grams silver from 118.9 metres depth in hole AT23NS-171.
Noteworthy hole AT23NS-172 cut 24.4 metres grading 1.76 grams gold and 440.6 grams silver from 123.5 metres; and hole AT23NS-164 cut 41.2 metres at 2.25 grams gold and 100.3 grams silver from 149.4 metres depth.
The mineralization in AT23NS-164 is mostly hosted in silicified rhyolitic intrusive rock, and seems to have played a major role in decalcifying carbonate host rocks and depositing gold and silver throughout the Atlanta deposit, the company said. That has important implications as Nevada King searches for new mineralized zones within the carbonate-dominated regional targets identified north and east of the resource zone earlier this month.
Nevada King began acquiring properties along the state’s Battle Mountain Trend in 2016. Atlanta hosts 11 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 1.3 grams gold for 460,000 oz. gold and 11.9 grams silver for 4.2 million contained ounces, according to a 2020 resource estimate. Inferred resources total 5.3 million tonnes at 0.83 gram gold for 142,000 oz. and 7.3 grams silver for 1.2 million oz. of contained metal.
