This was written before the off the chart holes on May 17.
It looks like ICN has a mother lode high grade deposit.
Gold Discovery Contenders: ICN Resources Gearing Up to Drill Bonanza
by James West on February 9, 2011
By James West
MidasLetter.com
February 9, 2011
ICN Resources Ltd., (TSX.V:ICN), the latest mining project by rock star geologist and serial mine finder Carl Herring, is gearing up to drill the Goldfield Bonanza project this month in the historic Goldfield Mining District in Nevada. There is heightened industry attention surrounding this upcoming drill program for several compelling reasons, foremost among which is the very high grade results which assayed as high as 4 ounces per tonne of gold
First off, the Goldfield District, discovered in 1903, has a history of production of over 4 million ounces of gold from ores grading as high as an ounce of gold per tonne and better, with the average historic (non-43-101 compliant) production grade coming in at a remarkable 17 grams per tonne. Records also indicate production of 1.5 million ounces of silver.
Since 2001, the project has seen 35,000 feet of reverse circulation drilling both from surface and from past producing drifts underground by property owner Lode-Star Gold Inc., a private Nevada corporation. ICN is earning an 80% interest in the property through the expenditure of $5 million on exploration, payment of $3 million over four years to Lode-Star, and 3 million units of ICN comprised of a share and a warrant.
ICN confirmed some of Lode-Star’s previous drill results through and analysis of check assays from prior drill programs. The average variation in assay was only .15%, which is not significant. Carl Herring, President and CEO of ICN, commented that, “I have been working on this acquisition for some time and believe that it will add a high quality, potentially very high grade gold project to ICN’s portfolio of volcanic hosted exploration properties in Nevada. Furthermore, upon completion of ICN’s due diligence, and execution of a final agreement, ICN will be in a position to initiate a significant drill program, subject to drill rig availability, as winter drilling conditions on the Property located in the southern portion of Nevada, should not be severe.”
Lonnie Humphries, owner and President of Lode-Star Gold, stated that, “Lode-Star Gold has reviewed numerous possible venture opportunities over the years, and we believe that we have found the right partner in ICN Resources.”
Mark Walmesley, Director of Operations for Lode-Star Gold, said, “As Carl Herring and I have been working on this acquisition, Lode-Star Gold has been very diligent in partnering with a quality organization that believes in the merits of the Goldfield Bonanza Project. I believe that Carl and ICN are the right group to take this property to the next level. We at Lode-Star Gold look forward to supporting ICN as we progress the Project.”
The drilling is expected to commence in the next two weeks, and will twin some of Lode-Star’s holes to confirm mineralization, as well as attempt to expand the known mineralized zones in support of a 43-101 report.
The table below is the results of ICN’s check assay program announced last month.
Other Projects
ICN is not a one trick pony. MidasLetter selected the company as a potential winner in October 2010 when the company was trading at $0.34 (Its now at $0.54) based on the strength of its other properties. ICN is primarily focused on exploration for volcanic-hosted precious metal deposits in western Nevada, emphasizing targets with geological similarities to Sleeper, Sandman, Hollister, Midas and Aurora in Nevada and El Penon in Chile.
The company acquired the Hog Ranch project from Seabridge Gold (TSX:SEA) as part of a joint venture agreement in May of 2009. Hog Ranch covers 1,990 hectares in Washoe county in northwestern Nevada.
The Hog Ranch Property is a large gold-bearing hydrothermal system which is the westernmost of a series of gold deposits in the northern Nevada epithermal district, which includes bonanza grade gold deposits such as the Sleeper Mine (approximately 1.7M oz. production), Midas Mine currently operated by Newmont Mining with 1998 historic pre-mining reserves of 2.7 million tons grading 1.115 oz/ton Au and 12.82 oz/t Ag (Goldstrand and Schmidt, 2000) and Great Basin Gold Ltd’s Hollister deposit (NI43-101 compliant reserves of 1.28 million tons grading 0.90 oz/ton gold and 4.8 oz/ton silver; Feb. 23, 2009 news release).
A National Instrument 43-101 technical report on the Hog Ranch project was release by ICN in January.
The more prospective Rockland-Pine Grove project on the Walker Lane trend in south central Nevada was last explored by BHP in the 80’s, whose drilling intercepted some good grade from near surface to 70 metres. The include 36.6 metres grading 1.2 grams per tonne gold, 3 metres grading 8.54 grams per tonne, and 3 metres grading 5.1 grams across three separate holes.
In the East Zone, which was drilled by several companies in the 90’s and early 2000’s, and the best results from these include 86.9 metres grading 1.08 grams per tonne gold, 27.4 metres at 1.38 grams per tonne, 13.7 metres at 1.48 grams per tonne and 9.2 metres grading 1.7 grams per tonne gold.
The Dunes Poperty, acquired by staking, is immediately west of the Sandman project, formerly held by Fronteer Gold (AMEX:FRG), recently taken over by Newmont Mining. (NYSE:NEM). Dunes is also 25 kilometres to the south of the high grade Sleeper mine, which produced 1.66 million ounces of gold and 2.3 million ounces of silver.
Lastly is the JJ (Trout Creek) Property in Humboldt County which is 20 miles north of the Sleeper Mine, and exploration by AMAX mining in the 80’s yielded some lower grade but good widths, the best of which was 30 metres at 0.46 grams per tonne gold. No trip to Hollywood, but gold mineralization is there, and if anyone can find it, Carl Herring, the Ph.D. geologist president of the company is the man to do it.
Catherine McLeod-Seltzer, herself a very successful mining entrepreneur and prolific mine finder, once said of Dr. Herring, “As head of the special committee I hired Carl Herring, an ex-Placer Dome geologist who was a very good exploration geologist, and he said there’s at least half a million ounces sticking out of the ground there, which probably has 5 million ounces now.”
According to the ICN web site:
Dr. Hering is a geologist with over 30 years of diversified technical and managerial experience in mineral exploration and corporate development worldwide. He was instrumental in two major gold discoveries in Latin America, each exceeding 3 million ounces. He has experience in all aspects of exploration, corporate development, management, strategic planning and new program design and implementation. Dr. Hering previously worked in senior positions (1978-1997) for both Noranda Exploration and Placer Dome Inc. worldwide. From 1997 to 1999 he was Vice President Corporate Acquisitions for Bema Gold Corporation, and in 2006, held the position of Senior V. P. Exploration and Business Development for Rio Narcea Gold Mines. He is now an independent consultant and a Director of several other public companies. Recently he was responsible for the acquisition of the Hammond Reef gold project (Brett Resources) which now hosts a resource of 6.7 million ounces. Additionally, while working for Noranda in 1985 at Hog Ranch, he developed an exploration model which led to discovery of two new zones of mineralization — both of which have now been mined.
The property package combined with Carl Herring’s leadership were enough to give Midas Letter readers a green light on ICN back in October 2010. The upcoming drill program on the newly acquired Bonanza project just adds to what was already a great early stage opportunity. |
