ASX-listed explorer PolarX is getting down to business at its newly acquired Humboldt Range gold-silver project in a multi-million-ounce mining region of Nevada. In-field drill-targeting has commenced at the Fourth of July and Black Canyon landholdings where off the chart samples going as high as 3,384 grams per tonne gold and 2,837 g/t silver were previously recorded.
Humboldt Range is made up of 272 lode mining claims across the Black Canyon and the Fourth of July landholdings that are located within ten kilometres of each other. Mineralisation occurs in swarms of high-grade epithermal quartz veins ranging in thickness from 1 centimetre up to 3 metres in width, with historical mining at the project occurring between 1865 and 1927.
The claims have been owned by the same family since the 1950s and only limited exploration has taken place despite the abundance of high-grade gold and silver samples from veins and historical workings that have been reported.
Results from the limited exploration works conducted in the 2000s suggest the mineral-rich epithermal quartz veins occur in volcanic rocks within wide structural corridors ranging between 30 metres and 275 metres in width.
The structural corridors carry hundreds of the quartz veins ranging from 5 centimetres to over 1.5 metres in width, with visible gold reported in the veins.
The host rocks are believed to be strongly silicified with widths up to five times the thickness of the veins, whilst gold is believed to be found up to two metres away from veins that are 20 to 30 centimetres wide.
As part of the upcoming fieldwork, PolarX will look to assess the continuity of the veins and evaluate the altered rock located between the veins to determine whether or not they host economic gold and silver mineralisation that is suitable for bulk mining methods.
The works will initially commence at the Fourth of July claims and where it will focus on the existing high-grade outcropping veins. An abundance of historical samples returned bonanza grades as high as 2,639 grams per tonne silver, 2,083 g/t silver and 31 g/t gold from veins scattered across the Fourth of July tenure. The strike extent of the veins will be initially mapped and sampled, with a systematic soil sampling and geological mapping program to follow.
A similar program of works is set to follow at the Black Canyon landholdings located a few kilometres to the north which will include a follow up of the eye-catching 3,384 gram per tonne gold sample that came from the old Indian Ike mine.
Another 512 g/t and a 335 g/t gold sample from the Lois Vein will also be followed up.
Drones will be used to collect high-resolution orthophotography and digital terrain mapping, whilst ground or airborne geophysics may also be undertaken.
Humboldt Range is located in the multi-million-ounce mining region of Nevada and the company’s landholdings lie just a stone’s throw away from two serious mining operations.
The five-million-ounce Florida Canyon gold mine is located within a few kilometres to the west of the Black Canyon claims, whilst some fifteen kilometres to the south of the Fourth of July claims lies the Rochester mine with a head-turning 400 million ounces of silver and 3 million ounces of gold in metal endowment.
With its saddlebags full of cash courtesy of a recent capital raise, PolarX has wasted little time in getting on the ground to follow-up the multiple bonanza grade precious metals showings at Humboldt Range.
PolarX’s sample grades are off the charts – if the ASX-listed company can find the source of these spectacular samples, it will be off the races for its followers.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
