Power Metal Resources PLC (LON:POW) the London listed exploration company seeking large-scale metal discoveries across its global project portfolio announces a exploration update in respect of its wholly-owned subsidiary Golden Metal Resources Limited (“Golden Metal”), focused on Nevada, USA and which is currently seeking an independent listing on the London markets.
LATEST EXPLORATION HIGHLIGHTS:
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Project |
Technical Findings |
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Pilot Mountain |
– Multiple untested chargeability and gravity highs identified east & southeast of main Desert Scheelite tungsten deposit.
– Underexplored copper rich zones identified near eastern most extent of historic drilling at Desert Scheelite and Good Hope deposits.
– Several tier 1 and tier 2 exploration targets located primarily between the four main deposit areas with potential to substantially increase the existing resource. |
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Golconda Summit |
– Hydrothermal fluids believed to have caused remobilisation of significant gold mineralisation (including 7.6m at 24.0g/t gold & 15.2m at 8.6g/t gold – in historical trenches) into the Havallah Sequence (upper Golconda Thrust plate) rocks from the underlying thrust plate units.1
– Significant potential exists for further gold mineralisation within the Antler/Edna Peak Mountain limestones (lower Golconda Thrust plate strata), which are virtually untested by historical drilling. |
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Garfield |
– Historic rock sampling of surface gossans highlighted up to 6% copper, 3.5g/t gold and 124 g/t silver.2
– Remote sensing studies including Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer and European Space Agency Sentinel-2 datasets highlighted considerable additional prospective ground (now staked). |
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Stonewall |
– Highly experienced epithermal gold deposit geologist commissioned to undertake a comprehensive historic data analysis at the Stonewall Project.
– Favourable structural zones for potential epithermal gold mineralisation identified near eastern and western end of exposed Stonewall vein, representing compelling high-priority exploration targets going forward. |
Paul Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of Power Metal Resources plc, commented:
“It is abundantly clear from our exploration work to date that the Golden Metal project portfolio hosts several underexplored, highly prospective, gold, tungsten, copper and silver exploration targets.
We believe that the Pilot Mountain project holds the potential to substantially increase the existing JORC (2012) compliant Resource and also the potential to expand on the multiple copper-rich zones identified by limited historical drilling to the east of Desert Scheelite and Good Hope.
Golconda Summit, positioned in a neighbourhood of dramatic scale Carlin-type gold deposits, has the potential for another major gold discovery within the underexplored Golconda Thrust lower plate strata on the Project; evidenced by the considerable gold mineralisation found historically within the thrust’s upper plate rocks on the Golconda Summit Project – which are not typically known as good hosts for Carlin-type gold mineralisation across Northern Nevada . As a result, our main goals are to test the favourable lower thrust plate rocks on the Golconda Summit Project as soon as possible.
Whilst our focus justifiably will be on Pilot Mountain and Golconda Summit, we are also seeing extremely strong findings from our work at the Garfield and Stonewall projects. There is clearly also great value in both projects and we will ensure sufficient work is undertaken expeditiously to better understand the potential offered by each.
Power Metal is preparing for the listing of Golden Metal Resources in London, and corporate work in this regard is progressing at pace. A further corporate update will follow in due course.”
DETAILED PROJECT SPECIFIC UPDATES
Key
Gold “Au”, Silver “Ag”, Tungsten “WO3“, Zinc “Zn”, Copper “Cu”
Pilot Mountain
The Pilot Mountain tungsten-copper-silver-zinc Project (“Pilot Mountain”) is 100% owned by Golden Metal. The details of the transaction can be found at the link below:
Pilot Mountain represents a strategic asset for Golden Metal as it hosts a robust JORC (2012) compliant Mineral Resource of 12.53Mt at 0.27% W03 with significant Cu-Ag-Zn credits3. Tungsten was added to the 2020 United States Geological Survey (“USGS”) Critical Minerals List – a list of 50 non-fuel mineral or mineral materials deemed essential to the economic or national security of the USA; there is currently no known domestic production of tungsten within the USA.4
On the back of surging global energy and transportation costs, the price of tungsten has risen >40% in the past year, from ~US $22,000/t to over US$31,000/t.5
Since acquiring Pilot Mountain, Golden Metal has hosted several technical planning meetings in order to determine the exploration direction for the asset post-listing. Golden Metal’s exploration strategy going forward can be summarised into three main focus areas which include:
1) Targeting underexplored blue-sky exploration opportunities across the Pilot Mountain Project – including multiple untested chargeability and gravity highs identified during a 2013 induced polarisation (“IP”) and gravity survey; the untested geophysical anomalies are located east and southeast of the Desert Scheelite Deposit. The 2013 geophysical report highlighted a ‘strong IP conductor much larger than the known mineralisation’, and noted that the IP conductor identified ‘indicated mineralisation is likely to extend further to both the east and north’ of the Desert Scheelite Deposit.6 Additional geophysical surveys will also be undertaken, which may include airborne magnetics, as well as ground-based IP and gravity surveys focusing on the area east and southeast of the survey conducted in 2013, as well as the ~1500m zone between the Desert Scheelite and Good Hope deposits where the Company believes there to be considerable exploration upside.
2) Targeting copper rich zones originally identified during the 2012 and 2017 drilling campaigns. This is highlighted by the most easterly hole drilled during the 2012 drill programme which intersected exceptionally strong mineralisation of 13.9m averaging 0.89% W03, and 1.75% Cu at only 130m true vertical depth. Similarly, drilling at Good Hope in 2017 returned 26.6m averaging 0.21% WO3, 1.0% Cu, and 1.2% Zn starting at only 0.8m downhole.7 As previously mentioned, Good Hope is located ~1,500m north of Desert Scheelite and the high-grade copper intercepts encountered at both deposits may represent the transition to a more copper rich zone towards the east, an area that was largely untested by any previous operators.
3) Targeting several tier 1 and tier 2 exploration targets located primarily between the four main deposit areas (Desert Scheelite, Garnet, Gunmetal, and Good Hope), which have been generally overlooked because of thin post-mineral volcanic and sedimentary cover obscuring any outcropping mineralisation within this area. A previous operator highlighted the potential to increase the size of the Pilot Mountain JORC (2012) compliant Resource substantially by drilling these various exploration targets (many of which have historic tungsten rich drill intercepts). The Company will prioritise the highest ranked targets for drilling, with the aim of significantly de-risking the asset by building out and upgrading the existing Resource.
Golconda Summit
Golden Metal has the option to earn 100% of the Golconda Summit Carlin-type gold Project which is located 15km east of Winnemucca, NV, at the confluence of the prolific Battle Mountain-Eureka and Getchell trends. The details of the transaction can be found at the link below:
The Project is underlain by a thrust faulted Palaeozoic sedimentary package which has been transported eastward to its present day location along the major Golconda Thrust fault. The preserved stratigraphic section includes the Antler Peak Limestone, Edna Mountain Formation and the Preble Formation (collectively “lower thrust plate rocks”), which are structurally capped by the Havallah Sequence (“upper thrust plate rocks”). Previous work has been primarily focused on surface anomalies within the overlying upper plate rocks, which are not a known host of Carlin-type mineralisation within Nevada; despite this, previous work by Nerco Mineral Company in 1989 encountered significant gold mineralisation within upper thrust plate rocks including trench results of 7.6m @ 24.0g/t Au and 15.2m @ 8.6g/t Au, as well as shallow drilling results of 10.7m @ 3.9g/t Au.1
These exceptional results were believed to be caused by hydrothermal fluids remobilising gold mineralisation from favourable lower thrust plate strata along sub-vertical fault structures, and depositing it in the upper plate rocks found at surface today. This hints at the significant potential that exists within the virtually untested lower plate rocks found across the Project, directly below the Havallah Sequence. Most of the previous exploration at Golconda consisted of shallow, vertical drill holes which were terminated short of the more favourable lower plate host rocks. Only two holes penetrated through the Golconda Thrust fault testing only a short section of the upper Edna Mountain Formation.
The Antler Peak Limestone and its stratigraphic equivalents are known host rocks for both Carlin-type (Chimney Creek Mine) and replacement-skarn deposits (Fortitude and Phoenix Mines), the Edna Mountain Formation is known host rock for the nearby Lone Tree Mine, and the Preble Formation is host to the nearby Preble Mine, located less than 10km from the Project.
Since acquiring the asset, Power Metal has successfully obtained trenching permits from the United States Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”). Additionally, the Company has employed various geological consultants to review the historic data files and provide comment. The work completed has resulted in many important highlights about the project which will factor heavily into the decisions towards future work programmes including:
1) Trenching targeting the exceptional historical results obtained within the Havallah Sequence rocks. To date, the location of the permitted trenches has been marked by stakes, allowing the Company to carry out when ready, regardless of snow cover at the time. A highly regarded Nevada based full-service geological consulting company (“Nevada Co”) has been selected to carry out this work, as well as various other work programmes across the portfolio.
2) A proposal has also been received by Nevada Co to carry out a high-density soil sampling survey across the property, including 75m x 75m spaced samples for a total of 546 samples. A comprehensive soil sampling survey has never been completed across the Golconda Summit Project, and the results will aid Golden Metal with structural and alteration mapping within the upper plate rocks, with the main goal of identifying structural zones and sub-vertical faults which may be acting as feeder structures from the more favourable lower plate strata.
3) Various ground-based geophysical surveys are also being contemplated, as no known modern geophysical surveys have ever been carried out on the Golconda Summit Project. The goal of the geophysical programmes will be to help map the various favourable host units contacts at depth.
4) All preparatory surveys are being completed in order to better refine drill targets for the planned 2022 deep drilling campaign. This drilling campaign is planned to be the first ever to target the various favourable lower plate rocks on the Goldconda Summit Project, which are known hosts for many nearby past producing, and currently operational gold mines.
Garfield
The Garfield copper-silver-gold Project (“Garfield”) is 100% owned by Golden Metal. The details of the transaction can be found at the link below:
Garfield was originally staked to cover a small area of gossan occurring at surface and discovered in 2015. Initial sampling over the gossan returned rock results up to 6% Cu, 3.5g/t Au, and 124g/t Ag. A single 26m trench was oriented over part of the gossan in 2016 and returned an interval of 22m of 0.33% copper, including a 2m sub-interval grading 2.18% copper (16m-18m), and a separate 2m sub-interval grading 1.2g/t Au.2 The trench ended in mineralisation and remains open along strike. No additional follow up work had been completed on the Project.
Since acquiring the asset the Company undertook a Remote Sensing study including the analysis of Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (“ASTER”) and European Space Agency Sentinel-2 datasets. Positive results generated by the programme led to the staking of additional claims. The details of the work programme are highlighted at the link below:
Following the successful results generated, the Company has undertaken a thorough review of all historic data available. As a result of the analysis completed, Golden Metal has developed a exploration strategy for the Garfield going forward following the planned listing in London which will include:
1) Nevada Co provided Golden Metal with a proposal for a geochemical soil survey consisting of 802 total samples collected at 200m x 200m spacing. This work programme has been scheduled for late Q1, which coincides with the targeted IPO date of Golden Metal. Several other high-priority copper anomalies identified by the Remote Sensing Study will be the target of this geochemical survey – along with multiple other historic mines and copper occurrences identified in various USGS datasets.
2) Various geophysical surveys are also being contemplated, as no known modern geophysics has been completed near to, or over Garfield. Geophysics, in conjunction with the planned geochemical surveys will allow the Company to position Garfield as a more regional type skarn-style exploration play with vastly increased discovery potential.
Stonewall
The Stonewall gold-silver Project (“Stonewall”) is 100% owned by Golden Metal. The details of the transaction can be found at the link below:
The focus of the Stonewall gold-silver Project is a >1.2km long Au/Ag-bearing low sulphidation epithermal vein & stockwork system on the northern side of Stonewall Mountain within the prolific Walker Lane Mineral Belt. IMC Minerals, the most recent project operator who undertook drilling at Stonewall, targeted less than 400m of the exposed more than 1,200m of strike length along the Stonewall vein. Drill pads were chosen within this limited section primarily because of accessibility of flat ground where drill pads could be excavated in a time efficient manner.
Golden Metal recently contracted experienced epithermal gold deposit geologist to undertake a comprehensive historical data analysis on Stonewall, with the goal of helping direct future exploration initiatives on the Project post listing. The recent report commissioned, concluded that the structurally complex “horsetailed” segments at the eastern end of the vein are probably dilational sites which are favourable hosts for epithermal Au-Ag mineralisation.
Additionally, he determined that the carbonate-rich northwest trending veins at the western end of the vein system have not been unroofed, representing a compelling underexplored exploration target. He concluded that there remains significant potential for locating ore shoots of bonanza grade Au-Ag at Stonewall . Based on the analysis completed by Golden Metal at Stonewall to date, the Company’s exploration plans going forward will include:
1) Detailed geological mapping and surface sampling/chip sampling will be undertaken over several of the prospective areas detailed in the report, including the eastern “horsetailing” zone and western vein-stockwork zone – both of which were underexplored by previous operators. Petrographic work may also be carried out on collected samples to confirm the presence of adularia and sulphide/sulphosalts minerals, which are general indicators of epithermal boiling zones.
2) All preparatory work will be completed in order to refine drill targets for a planned deep drilling campaign at Stonewall. Contingent on geological mapping and surface sampling/chip sampling results, the drilling will focus on the underexplored eastern and western portions of the Stonewall vein. Planned holes will designed to test to a true vertical depth of at least 150-250 meters, representing a depth where the postulated Au-Ag rich boiling zone may be found.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Golden Metal has several exciting exploration initiatives that are being planned across the portfolio. Whilst the listing process is ongoing, additional preparatory and desktop analyses are planned in order to give the company the best chance of success post listing. Significant exploration news flow, including planned drilling programmes at Pilot Mountain and Golconda, as well as high-impact grassroots geochemical and geophysics programmes at Stonewall and Garfield, could act a catalysts for the company post completion of its planned initial public offering.