Mixed metals explorer Oar Resources is poised to return to an early-stage, gold-focused diamond drilling campaign at its Douglas Canyon project in Nevada in the United States after adverse weather conditions and the festive season break paused the program. According to the company, the area to be examined has been expanded during the recess with new claims staked in the west.
Oar’s first move will be to initially re-enter and extend the first hole of the maiden program. The company says the new probe is aimed at diving deeper into a vastly fractured high-grade quartz vein housed inside sheared meta sediments that have been mapped at the zones surface. The hole will be plunged to a depth of up to 300 metres before the rig is remobilised to test a subsequent hole with a parallel high-grade structure.
According to management, the work is targeting a string of parallel vein structures where high-grade gold and silver mineralisation has been confirmed through prior outcrop sampling.
Previous drilling at the project has yielded fractured core samples and the looming campaign will look to maximise drill core recovery to enable better analysis and consequently a better geological understanding of the ground. Oar believes the presence of silica flooded host rocks, thin quartz stringers and highly siliceous quartz breccias in its drilling are all positive signs for the discovery of more gold at the Douglas Canyon project.
Oar Resources’ Managing Director Justin Richard, said:“With gold prices running higher it’s an opportune time to be drilling the Douglas Canyon Gold Project in Nevada, which consistently ranks among the top tier mining jurisdictions globally and currently holds top spot for overall investment attractiveness and second for mineral potential.”
After adding an extra 2.59 square kilometres of ground following the addition of a number of new claims the interpreted strike length at Douglas Canyon is now over 2.5 km.
According to Oar, its new ground hosts several prospective pits extending to the west of a previously mapped and sampled structure. It says airborne imagery suggests the new ground could host even more structures and will be mapped and studied over the next few weeks.
Historic bulk leach extractable gold, or "BLEG" sampling across the new claim area has delivered results including 37.5 parts per billion gold and 117.9 parts per billion silver.
The Douglas Canyon project is located in Nevada's Walker Lane Gold-Silver District, that is known for its many volcanic-hosted epithermal gold and silver deposits.
Interestingly, within a 50-kilometre radius of Oar's Douglas Canyon project, there are eight major gold projects. An outstanding intercept of 22.86m at 13.55 g/t gold was recently discovered at US-based producer Fortitude Gold's East Camp Douglas mine, located about 5km south.
Oar's rejuvenated drill program at Douglas Canyon appears to have all the necessary elements to put the company’s US gold project on the map. With a slew of potential targets on a now beefed-up land package in a highly prospective region. All that remains now is to find out just how much gold lies below.
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