Spectrum Rare Earths is off to a cracking start at its Washington gold project in northern California.
A diamond hole designed to intersect a number of existing quartz lodes at the project, recently revealing visible gold in the well-developed Dean vein, at the decommissioned gold mine.
Historical intersections nearby include 2.9 metres grading 10.3 grams per tonne at the Madre vein and 0.3m @ 57.6g/t at the Washington vein.
The new drill hole was designed to intersect these vein sets and extend into the subparallel Dean vein, which it was successful in doing.
A feature of the mesothermal orogenic vein sets at the project is the association of base metal sulphides with very high gold grades.
The company reported that the first diamond drill hole contained similar sulphides with coarse free gold within the Dean quartz vein that was intersected.
The drill hole is the first of four underground orientation diamond drill holes to be completed as part of the company’s 3-month exclusive option to undertake a due diligence program at the mine.
The mineralised drill core has been sent away for expeditious assaying and the remainder of the hole will be analysed for gold and other elements, with those results expected over the next 4 weeks.
In this week’s announcement, Spectrum said the second diamond hole was well underway and nearing completion.
The identification of coarse visible gold outlines the potential of the project according to the company, who is confident it can extend known high-grade lodes at the property and potentially discover more over time.
Spectrum is nearly at the completion of its Stage 1 due diligence at the Washington project and has also been reviewing the mine’s underground infrastructure and existing plant, which includes a fully operational, conventional gold processing facility.
By Matt Birney
