Nevada King Gold Corp. has officially published results for 15 reverse circulation (“RC”) reconnaissance holes drilled in and around the East Ridge Target (“ERT”) at its 5,166 hectare (51.7km2), 100%-owned Atlanta Gold Mine Project, located in the prolific Battle Mountain Trend 264km northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. To give you some context, Nevada King kickstarted drilling at the ERT back in June with five holes located to test coincident geophysical and geochemical anomalies. Furthermore, a fence of 10 holes was also drilled between the ERT and the Atlanta Resource Zone. Among other details, we must acknowledge how the ERT covers a low resistivity zone that measures 100m-wide, strikes 1,000m north-south and is located 300m east of the historical Atlanta Pit and resource zone. Anyway, talk about the results in question, they begin by relaying that the first pass drilling at ERT has led to the discovery of an at-surface oxide gold zone called the East Ridge Zone (ERZ), which on its part, is located within the overall ERT area and includes the highlight interval of 1.32 g/t Au over 22.9m in AT24ET-11. Apart from that, gold mineralization was intercepted in five of today’s widely spaced holes over a 100m x 200m area. More on the same would reveal that it was hosted in silica breccia and mineralized intrusive rock down to a depth of 57m where it remains open. In essence, ERZ represents the first satellite gold discovery made at Atlanta, thus demonstrating the project’s district-scale potential.
Next up, the results revealed how the mineralized intercepts in today’s holes correlate well with the low resistivity zone from the Company’s CSAMT geophysical survey. The latter bit markedly outlines near-vertical bodies of low resistivity, interpreted as mineralized high-angle intrusions (shown in red) cutting up through a highly resistive, unmineralized dolomite sequence (shown in blue). Going back to the 10 vertical reconnaissance holes arranged along a north-south line between the ERT and the Atlanta resource zone, they were designed to check for a possible low-angle connection between both mineralized zones. Not just that, all ten holes were sited within the high resistance zone separating the ERT and resource zone, and the lack of significant gold values in these holes would go on to support the Company’s CSAMT interpretation.
“By comparing the past and present drill hole locations to the inferred intrusive pattern found in our CSAMT data, it is clear that very little of this prospective ground has been drill-tested. As our 2024 reconnaissance exploration program progresses, we now have numerous targets to chase in all directions,” said Cal Herron, Exploration Manager of Nevada King.
Then, the findings also told us all what we needed to know regards to the way each of today’s five highlight holes intercepted high-angle, intrusive-related gold mineralization, bounded laterally by massive, impermeable dolomite. Such a geological setting differs substantially from that seen in the Atlanta resource zone, where gold occurs along and immediately above a low-angle unconformity separating dolomitic and quartzitic basement rocks from overlying volcanic rocks. Making things even better would be new geological setting seen at the ERT contributing towards numerous targets identified by the CSAMT data throughout the Atlanta district, including the much larger Jumbo Target located a further 300m east of the ERT. This particular target measures 400m wide by 3,000m north-south.
“Today’s discovery of the ERZ marks a major milestone for our exploration efforts at Atlanta. Aside from representing the first satellite gold zone discovered in the district, it was primarily identified based on a geophysical anomaly. We have long hypothesized that Atlanta has district-scale potential to host multiple gold zones. However, these potential zones are hard to find when relying on geology alone, as they are obscured by extensive alluvium and basement rock cover throughout the district,” said Herron.
