NuLegacy Gold (NUG-V) drilled "a very thick package of the favourable Webvan5 stratigraphic unit" in its first two holes into the Red Hill Carlin-style project in central Nevada. Mr. Matter, chief executive officer, is an economist by trade, but geologese rolls off his tongue as though he were a native rockhound. Essentially, these 175-metre-thick intersections encountered the same rock that hosts most of the gold at the rival Goldrush deposit, 11 kilometres to the northwest.
Mr. Matter says that the core from the first hole was shipped for assaying nearly three weeks ago, while core from the just completed second hole is still being logged and will be shipped to the lab soon. The results should be available late in December. When drilling began in mid-October, NuLegacy was planning a five-hole program as a test of its theories, the primary hypothesis being that the favourable rock unit resides at Red Hill and is sufficiently thick. That is just the start, as the company plans a 42-hole reconnaissance drill program over the entire area, work that will continue through the winter.
Theories abound at Red Hill, where NuLegacy has been drilling intermittently since it acquired an option on the property in 2009 from Miranda Gold Corp. Drilling at the Avocado, Serena, North and Central zones -- mineralized areas that despite their names extend along a north-to-south line -- has produced thick hits of low-grade rock, although thankfully with little mention of their native stratigraphy.
No matter: It is a new year, and a new theory awaits testing. "The trend is our friend," opine Mr. Matter and his vice-president of exploration, Mark Bradley, who say that their new structural model is a powerful exploration tool that allows them to prioritize their drilling within the five-to-six-square-kilometre Rift Anticline zone, "thus optimizing chances for early discovery." They mean an early discovery "here" of course, and not elsewhere, where 11 years of drilling failed to produce an exciting new find to please long-term shareholders.
Business Reporter |
