US gold miner Fortitude Gold Corp. [OTCQB: FTCO] which operates the Isabella Pearl mine and treatment facility in Nevada, has continued its strategy of drilling for further nearby deposits and as part of that strategy has successfully completed another drilling programme along its Isabella Pearl trend.
The drilling at its Scarlet North target discovered multiple oxide gold intercepts, including 10.67 meters grading 1.30 grams per tonne gold within 21.34 meters grading 1.14 g/t gold and 6.10 meters grading 1.93 g/t gold within 44.20 meters grading 0.84 g/t gold, both drilled from surface.
“We have always expected our sizable Isabella Pearl trend to contain numerous deposits and we are optimistic Scarlet could be our second mine on trend. We believe a mine at Scarlet could potentially be added to our current Isabella Pearl mine plan through a permit modification and boundary expansion,” said Fortitude Gold’s CEO Jason Reid.
The intercepts are located at and near the surface on the north end of the Scarlet target and lend themselves to setting up an open pit mine.
The company is currently running several open pit scenarios based on the findings. Initial metallurgical tests suggest that the new mineralization could be treated in a very similar way as the oxide ore from the Isabella Pearl mine, that is, cyanide leached using a standard heap leach process.
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The new deposit is located only 700 metres away from the Isabella Pearl facility and the raw material would only require a short haul to the company’s nearby processing facilities.
“While we still have work to do before we can make that determination, we stand a good chance of someday adding Scarlet to the queue of future mine build,” added Reid.
Gold prices are currently trading just short of $2,040/oz and analysts expect them to remain strong for the better part of the year.
Fortitude Gold project updates
This latest reverse circulation drill programme builds on the company’s drill results in October last year at the same target, which included 50.29 meters grading 0.86 g/t gold from surface. The most recent Scarlet North drill programme intercepted multiple intervals of oxide gold mineralization grading in excess of 1 gram per tonne.
Allan Turner, Vice President of Exploration for Fortitude Gold, said that, “Both our Isabella Pearl mine and our nearby Scarlet North target are located on a significant mineralized fault corridor extending to the northwest. While we look forward to drilling additional targets along this six-mile fault extension, we will continue to focus on Scarlet North with a goal of defining an initial resource from which to expand upon.”
The Nevada-based miner produced 37,996 ounces of gold at Isabella Pearl last year and progressed two more projects in the vicinity. In an update to investors in January the company’s CEO Jason Reid said that since the start of operations the Isabella Pearl project has exceeded the company’s expectations both in longevity and gold production.
Fortitude Gold is now waiting for the Bureau of Land Management to approve the mining of additional benches of transitional high-grade gold ore below the current permitted pit bottom in the Pearl zone.
The company’s two other projects County Line and Golden Mile are also in the Bureau of Land Management’s permitting pipeline. As soon as relevant permissions are obtained the company plans on starting construction of the County Line mine.
