Lahontan Gold Corp. (TSX-V: LG) (OTCQB: LGCXF) is pleased to announce an updated Mineral Resource Estimate for its flagship Santa Fe Mine, a past-producing open pit, heap leach, gold and silver mine, located in Nevada’s prolific Walker Lane. The MRE for Santa Fe is based upon 988 drill holes totaling 97,281 metres, including 79 drill holes totaling 19,151 metres drilled by Lahontan since 2021.
Highlights of the MRE include:
Kimberly Ann, Founder, Executive Chair, CEO, and President of Lahontan Gold Corp commented: “Lahontan is excited by the results of this updated MRE for the Santa Fe Mine, particularly the large growth of Indicated Resources and the continued expansion of the shallow Slab and Calvada oxide gold and silver deposits. The MRE will form the basis of a Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Santa Fe Mine. The PEA will examine mining and process options for resuming production utilizing low-cost open-pit mining and heap leach processing. Our technical consultants, Kappes, Cassiday and Associates (“KCA”) and RESPEC Company LLC (“RESPEC”), both based in Reno, Nevada, are well advanced at project planning, mine design, finalizing the process flow sheet, and optimizing crushing throughput. The Company has been using these preliminary designs to begin its State level mine permitting process while simultaneously completing it Exploration Plan of Operation with the Federal Bureau of Land Management. Once the EPOO is submitted to the BLM, a draft Mine Plan of Operations will be completed utilizing all the technical sections from the EPOO and both documents can proceed in parallel. With the release of the updated MRE and the soon to be completed PEA, Lahontan is at an exciting inflection point in its growth and we look forward to continuing our evolution from a junior explorer to a mine development company.”
Table 1: Project-wide Resources, Santa Fe Mine, Mineral County, Nevada.
Notes to Table 1:
About the Santa Fe Mine:
The Santa Fe Mine is in the Walker Lane mineral belt of western Nevada approximately 50 km from the town of Hawthorne in Mineral County. Nearby operating gold and silver mines include Isabella Pearl (Fortitude Gold) and Borealis (Borealis Mining). The Santa Fe Mine consists of four past-producing open-pits, including the Santa Fe, Slab, Calvada East, and York deposits, within a 26.4 km2 land package 100% controlled by Lahontan. The Santa Fe Mine had past production of 356,000 ounces of gold and 784,000 ounces of silver between 1988 and 1995 from open pit mines utilizing heap-leach processing (Nevada Division of Minerals, www.ndomdata.com) Mineralization occurs as disseminated gold and silver hosted by Triassic age calcareous rocks. Strong stratigraphic and structural controls of mineralization is evident. Considerable exploration potential remains at Santa Fe and the Company intends to continue its aggressive exploration and permitting program in 2024 and into 2025.
Location of MRE deposits with conceptual pit shells, Santa Fe Mine, Mineral County, Nevada.
Santa Fe Oxide Resources:
Oxide resources at the Santa Fe Mine occur at both the Santa Fe deposit and the Slab-Calvada Complex which includes the Slab, Calvada East, York, and Calvada Central deposits. The contained Au Eq oxide ounces for the Slab-Calvada Complex accounts for approximately 32% of the total Indicated Au Eq oxide ounces and over 90% of the total Inferred Au Eq oxide ounces. Mineral Resources at the Slab-Calvada Complex are shallow and locally exposed at surface, leading to potentially very low strip ratios. Oxide resources are open to the north and northeast of the Slab open pit, along the Calvada Fault, and at the York open pit.
The balance of the oxide resources are within the Santa Fe deposit, accounting for 68% of Indicated contained Au Eq oxide ounces, and 10% of Inferred AuEq oxide ounces. Oxide Mineral Resources within the Santa Fe deposit are primarily located in the northeast high wall of the Santa Fe open pit. The average grade of the Santa Fe deposit Indicated oxide resource is 0.70 g/t Au Eq, with locally higher grade zones that may serve as a starting point for future mining operations. Oxide resources at the Santa Fe deposit are open to the northeast, south, and southeast.
Santa Fe Non-Oxide Resources:
Non-oxide resources at the Santa Fe Mine are principally located in the Santa Fe deposit below the oxide resources and within the resource pit shell. The average grade of the Santa Fe deposit Indicated non-oxide resource is 1.45 g/t Au Eq and the Santa Fe deposit Inferred non-oxide mineral resource is 1.55 g/t Au Eq. Gold is very fine-grained and associated with pyrite. Within the southeastern portion of the Santa Fe deposit, higher-grade gold and silver resources may positively influence future project economics. Higher grade gold and silver mineralization extends to the southeast of the Santa Fe deposit, along strike and down-rake, providing excellent exploration opportunities to grow the non-oxide resources at Santa Fe.
Metallurgical Domains:
Modelling criteria for the oxide metallurgical domain is based on the ratio of gold by fire assay to gold by cyanide leach (extraction values). The ratio thresholds for the oxide metallurgical domain in the Santa Fe deposit used values of 80% and greater, and 60% and greater for Calvada (Slab, Calvada Central, Calvada East and York). Modelling the transitional metallurgical domain used ratios of less than 80% and greater than 50% for Santa Fe, and less then 60% to 30% for Calvada. The non-oxide metallurgical domain (“fresh” rock) was defined by ratios of less than 50% for Santa Fe and less than 30% for the Calvada area deposits.
Estimation Approach:
Lithology and gold and silver bearing domains were modelled using Leapfrog 2024. These domains are mainly defined by logged jasperoid and limestone-breccia lithologies and continuity of gold grades above 0.1 g/t gold. Metallurgical domains for oxide, transition and non-oxide were modelled based on ratio of cyanide leachable gold assay values to fire assay gold values in addition to drillhole logs recording abundance of pyrite and oxidation intensity. Transition material represents approximately 25% of oxide tonnes and comes almost entirely from the Santa Fe deposit. Transition domain material is included in the oxide resource. Domains representing lithology, weathering and mineralization models were assigned to a block model with a block size of 5 m x 5 m x 6 m. Average bulk densities representative of the mineralization and lithology models were assigned to the block model and vary from 2.4 t/m3 to 2.6 t/m3.
Grade capping and outlier restrictions were applied to gold and silver values and interpolation parameters respectively. Top cut values for gold and silver were evaluated for each domain independently prior to compositing to 1.52 m lengths that honor domain boundaries. Estimation was completed using Micromine Origin with Ordinary Kriging (OK) and Inverse Distance cubed (ID3) interpolants. Blocks were classified in accordance with the 2014 CIM Definition Standards. The nominal drillhole spacing for Indicated Mineral Resources is 50 m or less. The nominal drillhole spacing for Inferred Mineral Resources is 100 m or less.
Prospects for eventual economic extraction were evaluated by performing pit optimization using Lerchs-Grossman algorithm with the following parameters: gold price of US$1,950/oz gold, silver price of US$23.50/oz silver, selling costs of US$29.25/oz gold. Mining costs for resource and waste of US$2.50/t, processing cost (oxide) US$3.49/t, processing cost (non-oxide) US$25/t, G&A cost US$1.06/t. Royalties for the Slab, York and Calvada deposits are 1.25%. Maximum pit slope is 50 degrees. Processing recoveries range from 45% to 79% for oxide, silver recoveries range from 10% to 30% for oxide and non-oxide gold and silver recoveries are 71%.
About Lahontan Gold Corp and Filing of Report
Lahontan Gold Corp. is a Canadian mine development and mineral exploration company that holds, through its US subsidiaries, four top-tier gold and silver exploration properties in the Walker Lane of mining friendly Nevada. Lahontan’s flagship property, the 26.4-km2 Santa Fe Mine project, had past production of 356,000 ounces of gold and 784,000 ounces of silver between 1988 and 1995 from open pit mines utilizing heap-leach processing (Nevada Division of Minerals, www.ndomdata.com). The Santa Fe Mine has a Canadian National Instrument 43-101 compliant Indicated Mineral Resource of 1,539,000 oz Au Eq (grading 0.99 g/t Au Eq) and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 411,000 oz Au Eq (grading 0.76 g/t Au Eq), all pit constrained (Au Eq is inclusive of recovery, please see Lahontan Press Release dated October 15, 2024). The Company will continue to aggressively explore Santa Fe during 2024 and complete a Preliminary Economic Assessment evaluating development scenarios to bring the Santa Fe Mine back into production.
To support this Santa Fe MRE, a technical report prepared according to National Instrument 43-101 will be filed on SEDAR within the next 45 days. The independent Qualified Person responsible for the MRE disclosure for the Santa Fe Mine is Trevor Rabb, P.Geo., of Equity Exploration Consultants Ltd., in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. In accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Quentin J. Browne, P.Geo., Consulting Geologist to Lahontan Gold Corp., is the Qualified Person for the Company and approved the technical content of this news release
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