Liberty Gold Corp. (TSX: LGD) (OTCQX: LGDTF) has updated its mineral resource estimate at a southern Idaho gold deposit and now believes there is much more gold to be mined than previously thought.
On Tuesday, the Vancouver gold company announced that the updated estimate has shown a 52 per cent increase in indicated ounces and a 31 per cent increase in inferred ounces at the Black Pine oxide gold project. The company’s original resource estimate was released in July, 2021.
Liberty now estimates that the deposit contains 2,613,000 indicated ounces and 483,000 inferred.
Project map. Photo via Liberty Gold
Read more: NevGold Corp. gets exploration notice approval from Bureau of Land Management
Read more: NevGold should be trading at a premium to peers: Analysis
Liberty says the substantial increase in estimated gold can be attributed to the discovery of the Rangefront zone and subsequent drilling of 154 new holes, the expansion of several existing zones and the discovery of the Bobcat zone at Black Pine.
As of the end of 2022, the company had spent approximately $49 million on the project.
“The updated MRE represents the next step in validating our hypothesis that the Black Pine gold system may be the largest oxide gold system in the Great Basin not currently being mined,” said Moira Smith, Liberty Gold’s Corporate Technical Advisor.
“Compared to the July 2021 resource estimate, tonnes are up significantly while grade has improved using conservative input assumptions, positioning Black Pine in the rarified territory of an oxide resource with more than 2.6 million indicated ounces and a further half a million ounces inferred,” added Jason Attew, President and CEO of Liberty Gold.
Liberty Gold’s stock price dropped by 8.62 per cent today to $0.53 on the TSX.
Freeman Gold Corp. (TSX-V: FMAN) (OTCQX: FMANF) (FSE: 3WU) is another gold mining company with substantial Idaho operations. The company reported that one of the holes at its Lemhi gold deposit’s Beauty Zone returned 68.3 g/t Au over six metres in mid-December last year.
Freeman Gold’s stock price stayed flat at $0.23 today on the TSX Venture Exchange.
Perpetua Resources Corp. (NASDAQ: PPTA) (TSX: PPTA) is also currently awaiting a Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision for the Stibnite gold project, a controversial new exploration endeavour being proposed at an abandoned Idaho mining site.
The project would not only yield significant amounts of gold but also antimony, an element needed for producing a variety of technology that the United States has been relying on China and Russia for in the past.
Perpetua’s stock price dropped by 0.42 per cent today to US$4.77 on the TSX.
Read more: NevGold starts drilling at Nutmeg Mountain property
Read more: 2023 will be a ‘very strong’ year for gold mining: NevGold
NevGold Corp. (TSX-V: NAU) (OTCQX: NAUFF) (FSE: 5E50) also recently started drilling at the Nutmeg Mountain project in Western Idaho, a site estimated to host 910,000 ounces of indicated gold and 160,000 inferred.
The company expects to receive assay results for its recently drilled holes there by mid-March this year.
NevGold’s stock price rose by 2.78 per cent today to $0.37 today on the TSX Venture Exchange.
NevGold is a sponsor of Mugglehead news coverage
rowan@mugglehead.com
