Great Basin Encounters Bonanza Grades in Blanket Style Mineralization at
Hollister
VANCOUVER, Nov 09, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Great Basin Gold Ltd. ("Great
Basin" or the "Company"), (CA:GBG)(GBG)(jse:GBG) announces that trial mining in
the Blanket Zone above the Main Clementine vein #18 at its Hollister project in
Nevada has encountered bonanza grades of gold and silver.? The Company cautions
investors and readers that we are making this announcement out of an abundance of
concern over interpretation of this information and, as the information may be
known locally in the region of the mine site, the Company felt obligated to make
it public.?
Channel sampling carried out in conjunction with trial mining in the Blanket Zone
has encountered the bonanza grades over a strike distance of 170 feet (57
meters).Channel samples taken every 10 feet (3 meters) gave values ranging from a
low of 1.5 oz/ton(52.0g/t) Au and 3.2 oz/ton(111.9 g/t) Ag to a high of 2,560.4
oz/ton (88,845.9 g/t) Au and 1,829.8 oz/ton (63,494.1 g/t) Ag over channel widths
from 0.3 to 2 feet wide.? The current stope is continuously mineralized along
?its 180-foot (60-meter) length. Diluted over 3.5 feet (the width of the stope
development), the average sample values were 66.4 oz/ton (2,404 g/t) Au and
78.5oz/ton (2,723.9 g/t) Ag. Muck piles have also been sampled; grabs are taken
over the pile to collect as representative a sample as possible (between 10-15
lb. are collected every 10 feet). The fully diluted value of the muck samples
taken from the stope to date averages 22.3 oz/t (773.8 g/t) Au and 23.4 oz/ton
(811.9 g/t) Ag.
The Blanket style mineralization at Hollister is typified by very fine grained
disseminated gold hosted by tuffaceous horizons in the Tertiary (10-15 million
years old) volcanics that lie unconformably on the basement Ordovician (~430
million year old) metasediments.? These zones of mineralization are thought to be
"mineralization plumes" directly related to the activity of fluid which has
focused in structures that control the underlying epithermal quartz - adularia
veins, and propagated into the Tertiary volcanic pile.
Blanket mineralization was previously exploited by opencast methods during
1990-1992 by the Touchstone - Galactic Joint Venture.? According to historic
records, 115,000 ounces of gold were produced by a heap leach operation that
treated low grade ore (~0.003 oz/ton or 1 g/t Au).? Great Basin modeled all 46
drill intersections above the Tertiary unconformity, and +1 g/t grade shells
generally locate above known mineralized quartz - adularia veins.?? In general,
this style has been located in the first ~30 feet (10 meters) above the
unconformity, and may have dimensions in excess of 150 feet (50 meters) long and
60 feet (20 meters) wide. Grades from these 46 drill intersections average 0.45
oz/ton Au (15.4 g/t) and 1.7 oz/ton Ag (59 g/t).
Extrapolation of stope 3000N 1E to surface (approximately 200 feet? or 67 meters?
vertically above), places this zone 300 feet (100 meters) west of the historical
Clementine mercury mine.? It supports the near surface working metal zonation and
gold deposition model for the Hollister mine, and indicates additional
exploration potential.?
Ferdi Dippenaar, President and CEO, commented: "In the past, we have identified
the Blanket Zone as a target area worth exploring, and trial mining at the top of
vein #18 has turned out to be a great way to test the prospective nature of this
style of mineralization. Although we have encountered a limited amount of this
high grade material through trial stoping, drilling is underway to determine the
full extent of mineralization. More information will be made available as and
when it becomes available. Based on our experience in the Main Clementine vein
#18, we are evaluating the possibility of returning to previously stoped out
areas above the Gwenivere high grade veins."
Phil Bentley, Pr.Sci.Nat. (SACNAS) Vice President for Geology and Exploration for
the Company and a qualified person, and Johan Oelofse, PrEng, FSAIMM, Chief
Operating Officer for the Company and a qualified person, have reviewed this news
release on behalf of Great Basin.
Great Basin is a mining company engaged in the exploration and development of
gold properties. The Company is currently focused on bringing two mines in the
world's two richest gold producing regions into production. The Hollister gold
project is located on the Carlin Trend in Nevada, USA and the Burnstone gold mine
is located in the Witwatersrand Basin goldfield of South Africa.
Ferdi Dippenaar President and CEO
Samples collected from Hollister trial mining are delivered to the First
Gold Laboratory in Lovelock, Nevada for analysis.? The pulps of these
samples are now being sent to Inspectorate America Corporation in
Sparks, Nevada for checking.? At First Gold, vein samples are analyzed
by standard fire assay procedures.? For standard fire assay, vein
sample preparation consists of drying and jaw-crushing the entire
sample to 90% passing 10-mesh, taking a 300 g sub-sample using a Jones
splitter, and then pulverizing the 300 g sub-sample to 90% passing
150-mesh using a large capacity ring and puck pulverizer.? A 30 g
charge is fire assayed.? All metal determinations are by gravimetric
finish.
?
No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained in
this news release.
Cautionary and Forward Looking Statement Information
This document contains "forward-looking statements" that were based on Great
Basin's expectations, estimates and projections as of the dates as of which those
statements were made. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be
identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "outlook",
"anticipate", "project", "target", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend",
"should" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to known
and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's
actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially
different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
These include but are not limited to:
uncertainties and costs related to the Company's exploration and development
activities, such as those associated with determining whether mineral resources
or reserves exist on a property;
uncertainties related to feasibility studies that provide estimates of expected
or anticipated costs, expenditures and economic returns from a mining project;
uncertainties related to expected production rates, timing of production and the
cash and total costs of production and milling;
uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary licenses, permits,
electricity, surface rights and title for development projects;
operating and technical difficulties in connection with mining development
activities;
uncertainties related to the accuracy of our mineral reserve and mineral resource
estimates and our estimates of future production and future cash and total costs
of production, and the geotechnical or hydrogeological nature of ore deposits,
and diminishing quantities or grades of mineral reserves;
uncertainties related to unexpected judicial or regulatory proceedings;
changes in, and the effects of, the laws, regulations and government policies
affecting our mining operations, particularly laws, regulations and policies
relating to
mine expansions, environmental protection and associated compliance costs arising
from exploration, mine development, mine operations and mine closures;
expected effective future tax rates in jurisdictions in which our operations are
located;
the protection of the health and safety of mine workers; and
mineral rights ownership in countries where our mineral deposits are located,
including the effect of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act
(South Africa);
changes in general economic conditions, the financial markets and in the demand
and market price for gold, silver and other minerals and commodities, such as
diesel fuel, coal, petroleum coke, steel, concrete, electricity and other forms
of energy, mining equipment, and fluctuations in exchange rates, particularly
with respect to the value of the U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar and South African
rand;
unusual or unexpected formation, cave-ins, flooding, pressures, and precious
metals losses (and the risk of inadequate insurance or inability to obtain
insurance to cover these risks);
changes in accounting policies and methods we use to report our financial
condition, including uncertainties associated with critical accounting
assumptions and estimates;
environmental issues and liabilities associated with mining including processing
and stock piling ore;
geopolitical uncertainty and political and economic instability in countries
which we operate;? and
labour strikes, work stoppages, or other interruptions to, or difficulties in,
the employment of labour in markets in which we operate mines, or environmental
hazards, industrial accidents or other events or occurrences, including third
party interference that interrupt the production of minerals in our mines.
For further information on Great Basin , investors should review the Company's
annual Form 40-F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission
sec.gov and home jurisdiction filings that are available at
sedar.com.?
SOURCE Great Basin Gold Ltd. |
