Golden Phoenix to Commence Drilling Campaign at Mineral Ridge Gold Mine
Tuesday January 8, 5:00 am ET
SPARKS, Nev., Jan. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Golden Phoenix Minerals, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: GPXM - News) reports that its Technical Services Group has completed planning for the first phase of exploratory drilling aimed at increasing gold resources at the wholly owned Mineral Ridge Mine, located near Silver Peak in Esmeralda County, Nevada.
Golden Phoenix's Exploration Drilling Services department will take delivery of the recently ordered Atlas Copco TH60 drill rig this month as part of the drilling campaign. The rig is scheduled for delivery this week to Sacramento, California for commissioning and inspection. Once there, a custom angle package will be fabricated to increase the drilling range and flexibility of the rig.
Upon acceptance of the rig and angle package, Drill Manager Jason Layton and his crew will set up operations at Mineral Ridge Mine. Initial drilling will focus on completing approximately 100 50-foot holes in the existing leach pad to generate confirmatory samples of previous work. This drilling is designed to accurately measure the grade of the contained gold within the two million tons of mined material currently stacked on the heaps as well as to provide additional material for metallurgical testing.
With completion of that task, expected by the end of February, the crew will begin a 25,000-foot in-fill and step-out program on the western side of the project boundary, within the Brodie, Blue Light, and Solberry claim groups. The holes have been mapped and will range from 300-to-1200 feet in depth. This campaign is expected to take approximately 18 weeks, subject to a number of factors including weather and permitting.
The objective of the reverse circulation drilling campaign at Mineral Ridge is to increase its gold and silver resources as well as to provide analytical and geological information to enhance past assessments of the reserves. Given the size and complexity of the mineralized system on the property, it is anticipated that in excess of 100,000 feet of drilling will be conducted within the four-square mile property over the next two years. The samples generated by the drill crew will be processed by American Assay Laboratories and the assay results will be used to update the Behre Dolbear feasibility study, prepared in 2003.
Please visit the Golden Phoenix website at golden-phoenix.com
Golden Phoenix Minerals, Inc. is a Nevada-based mining company committed to deliver value to its shareholders by acquiring, developing and mining superior precious and strategic metal deposits in North America using competitive business practices balanced by principles of ethical stewardship. Golden Phoenix owns the Mineral Ridge gold and silver property near Silver Peak, Nevada, the Northern Champion molybdenum mine in Ontario, Canada, and is majority owner of the Ashdown Project LLC gold and molybdenum property held jointly by Golden Phoenix Minerals, Inc. and Win-Eldrich Mines, Ltd. of Toronto, Canada through its US subsidiary, Win-Eldrich Gold, Inc.
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