ASX-listed base and precious metals explorer PolarX is aiming to get a drill rig into action soon at its Humboldt Range silver-gold project in Nevada, USA, after outlining several substantial, high-grade epithermal silver-gold anomalies at its Fourth of July claims. A major 3.5km-long anomaly has been identified grading up to 186g/t silver in the soils and with rock-chips going at more than 1,000g/t silver and 10g/t gold.
Significantly, the geochemical soil sampling anomalies coincide with mapped geological structures and known mineralised quartz veins. However, the work has also highlighted additional areas for further evaluation. Generation of drill targets has already commenced with permitting for drilling to commence later this quarter.
PolarX says high-grade gold in soil anomalies are coincident with the massive silver anomaly with exposed vein rock-chip samples grading up to 4,800g/t and are also present several stand-alone anomalies “associated with known veins or extensions of known structures, or newly defined targets”. Peak gold-in-soil anomalism is 413 parts per billion gold, “with anomalism above 20ppb gold considered to be highly significant”.
Soil sampling on an east-west, 200m-by-50m grid was recently completed by PolarX covering most of the Fourth of July claims in the Humboldt Range project area, just north of Nevada’s significant Rochester silver-gold mine and milling operation with its 400 million-ounce silver and three million-ounce gold endowment.
The prominent, 3.5km-long silver anomaly occurs in the south-west part of PolarX’s tenement block and is said to be associated with two major north-south striking faults that form the Arizona Graben. The silver anomaly is also up to 2km wide and has a peak value of 186g/t silver in the soils. Multiple rock-chip samples collected from quartz veins within the silver anomaly have assayed more than 60g/t silver, with eight samples breaking the 1,000g/t barrier and an impressive peak value of 4,800g/t being returned.
The company also sampled rock chips over 10g/t gold along the fault margins of the Arizona Graben and picked up a remarkable peak value of 76g/t.
The Fourth of July project lies at the southern end of the Humboldt Range and is less than 15km from the operating Rochester mine, operated by New York-listed Coeur Mining.
The Humboldt Range project currently comprises 318 lode mining claims in Nevada in two claim groups, Black Canyon and Fourth of July, and is situated between the Florida Canyon gold mine and the Rochester silver-gold mine. The geology of the Humboldt Range is prospective for epithermal gold-silver mineralisation that is well known in Nevada. Widespread narrow vein mineralisation with visible gold occurs within the claims and was historically mined via numerous adits and underground workings between 1865 and the 1927.
High-grade silver and gold mineralisation occurs in swarms of epithermal quartz veins of varying thickness from 1cm to 3m, which manifest as either isolated veins or as broad zones of sheeted andanastomosing veins within areas of intensely altered and mineralised host rocks.
PolarX says assays for soil sampling and rock-chip sampling at the more gold-dominant Black Canyon claims at Humboldt Range are expected later this month. Ultra-high-resolution drone orthophotography and digital terrain mapping for use as 3D base maps has been collected over the entire project and is now being processed. All data will be reviewed by company geologists and be used to generate priority targets for drilling. This is expected by August with drilling to commence as soon as approvals are received.
Together with its Caribou Dome copper-rich massive sulphide deposit in Alaska, PolarX is stacking up an enviable portfolio of base and precious metals projects.
Interestingly, only seven historical RC holes have been drilled across the Fourth of July silver anomaly by Renaissance Exploration in 2015, so this highly prospective area remains effectively untested. PolarX aims to aggressively change that picture.
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By Matt Birney
