Standard Gold, www.standardgoldmining.com – the precious mineral exploration firm that holds title to the Bates-Hunter Mine in Colorado via wholly-owned subsidiary, Hunter Bates Mining Corporation, today reported execution of an option to purchase (and earn up to 55% interest in, subject to net profits clause) the Rex gold project.
The Bates-Hunter Mine was the second gold lode discovered in Colorado in the 1800’s, and helped to kick off the gold rush. It was closed in 1936, having gone down only 500-727, ft whereas other mines proximal to it extend below 2,200 ft.
The Rex gold property, originally drilled in the 1980s by one of the sector’s biggest names, saw a decline with falling gold prices in the 1990s, but saw a total of some 2,200 feet drilled in eight vertical sections 200-350 ft in a 1,500 by 4k foot area.
Despite the selection of assaying at intervals, all the holes drilled intersected observable ore-grade values over substantial widths, and the two experienced geological and mining consultancy teams brought in to evaluate the Rex property both recommended aggressive drilling.
Extant data indicates the potential for a significantly profitable open-pit operation, and surface exposure data, assays, and the extant data all paint a picture of a complex structural environment bearing strong mineralization and detachment-related gold deposits like those found in Copperstone (1.3M oz Ag total estimated), just 50 miles northwest of the Rex property.
President of SDGR, Steve Flechner, cited the Mesquite Mine (Mojave Desert, CA, historical production 2.3M oz Ag) as another example of “detachment gold deposits in the southwest United States that have been successfully mined”, and recounted his own participation in the mine while working for former employer, Consolidated Gold Fields, of London.
Flechner then went on to indicate that preliminary gold grade indications at Rex are higher than at Mesquite.
Other details of the Rex property:
• 102 unpatented lode mining claims on some 2,040 acres
• Mineralization is open at depth and along strike
• Six different mineralization types are present
• Mineralization in the shale and sandstone related to the detachment faults
• Indications of oxide and sulfide mineralization
• Bulk mining seems plausible given large flat zones 150-300 ft from the surface which would require very little stripping
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