By Overview
Getchell Gold (CSE:GTCH,OTCQB:GGLDF) is a mineral exploration company advancing its growing portfolio of gold and copper projects in the premier mining jurisdiction of Nevada.
Getchell Gold’s flagship Fondaway Canyon features a significant historical gold resource, and the 2020 and 2021 drill programs both extended broad zones of mineralization and discovered new high-grade zones. The company is also actively exploring the copper-gold-silver Star project and owns the Dixie Comstock gold and Hot Springs Peak gold projects.
Getchell Gold and its projects benefit from Nevada’s prominence as one of the world’s top mining jurisdictions due to the state’s mineral-rich geology, clear and consistent permitting process, low-cost drilling, excellent access to infrastructure and well-established local labor pool. Nevada boasts 23 major gold mines and is ranked fourth in the world for gold production, producing 5.5 million ounces of gold annually.
Getchell Gold acquired the Fondaway Canyon project in 2020 and has an inferred mineral resource of 38.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.23 grams per ton (g/t) gold for 1.51 million ounces of gold and indicated mineral resource of 11 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.56 g/t gold for an additional 550,800 ounces of gold. The company plans to release a preliminary economic assessment in 2023.
Getchell Gold is managed by a team of mining professionals and resource-based capital market specialists. William Wagener, CEO, is a seasoned mining executive with over 45 years of international mining and exploration experience in a variety of commodities. President Mike Sieb, a very experienced geologist and mining executive, is taking an active role in directing the company’s exploration activities.
Company Highlights
Three very successful drill seasons since acquiring the properties in 2020Cost-effective plan to add ounces through re-analysis of large legacy dataset amassed over multiple exploration and mining campaigns and construct a new mineralization 3D modelWork towards developing an economic assessment of the company’s flagship Nevada-based assets.Fondaway Canyon Gold Project in Nevada has an inferred mineral resource of 38.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.23 grams per ton (g/t) gold for 1.51 million ounces of gold and an indicated mineral resource of 11 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.56 g/t gold for an additional 550,800 ounces of goldThe company received authorization from the US Bureau of Land Management to construct an additional 12 drill pads as part of the planned 2023 drill program to expand the mineral resource at the Fondaway Canyon gold project.
Key Projects
Fondaway Canyon Gold Project
The western extent of Fondaway Canyon was the site of major activity, tungsten exploration and mining, from 1956 to 1976, until gold was discovered farther up the canyon to the east in 1977.
Fondaway Canyon gold mineralization
Prior to the 2017 drill program, Canarc commissioned a technical report authored by Techbase International reporting a historical indicated resource estimate of 409,000 gold ounces contained in 2.05 million tonnes grading 6.18 g/t and inferred resource estimate of 660,000 gold ounces contained in 3.2 million tonnes grading 6.4 g/t, using a 1.8-meter width cut-off and a cut-off grade of 3.43 g/t gold. The historical resource estimate does not include the seven holes Canarc drilled in 2017, which all intersected multi-gram mineralization both inside and outside of the area of the historical estimate.
Fondaway Canyon hosts multiple untested exploration targets, including near-surface oxide gold along favorable structural and host rock targets and deeper extensions of the sulfide zones. One of the most significant opportunities includes a lower-grade halo around the resource shell unaccounted for in the historical resource estimate. In addition, there is significant exploration upside along the trend and under-explored infill areas of the known gold occurrences, and all of the mineralized zones remain open to depth.
2022 Mineral Resource Estimate
Getchell Gold’s mineral resource estimate for the Fondaway Canyon project in Churchill County, Nevada stated an inferred mineral resource of 38.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.23 g/t gold for 1.51 million ounces of gold and indicated mineral resource of 11 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.56 g/t gold for an additional 550,800 ounces of gold. The reported MRE conceptualizes potential open-pit and underground mining.
Mineral Resource Estimate Key Highlights
Large ‘at surface’ mineral resource estimate in a premier gold mining jurisdiction
Inferred mineral resource of 38.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.23 g/t gold for 1.51 million ounces of goldIndicated mineral resource of 11 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.56 g/t gold for an additional 550,800 ounces of goldGold mineralization remains open for further expansion in all contributing zones
Getchell Gold’s Complementary Nevada Projects
Star Project
The Star property is an early-stage gold-copper project covering 1,600 hectares in Pershing County, Nevada. Located on the West Central Rift of the Northern Nevada Rift which hosts the prolific Sleeper deposit, the Star property has large-scale mineralization potential. The project contains two surface mineralized project areas named Star Point and Star South.
The property has four identified mineralized targets, including known copper mineralization with possible mineralized porphyry connection to concealed intrusion, Phoenix-style intrusive copper-related and potential skarn-hosted gold, potential Carlin-style sediment-hosted gold identified by sampling and geophysics and a potential gold target under pediment identified by geophysics. Exploration of these four targets to date includes mapping, sampling and geophysics.
Star Point is the site of a historic, near-surface, mining operation underlain by a magnetically defined intrusion. The IP-Resistivity survey over the intrusion returned chargeability and resistivity highs that have been interpreted as potential copper sulfide mineralization, possibly intrusion-related. Surface sampling returned grades up to 3.23 percent copper.
The Star South is a historic artisanal shallow mining area that contains surface copper-gold oxide mineralization along northeast-trending faults and along the thrust fault boundary at the surface. An IP-Resistivity survey returned elevated chargeability and a resistivity high indicating the presence of a strong conductor. Surface sampling returned grades up to 2.65 percent copper. A target to the west of Star South in the pediment was identified by geophysics which indicated that there is a shallow strong chargeability for intrusion-related mineralization at a nearby magnetic high.
Drill pad at Star South
Dixie Comstock Gold Property
The Dixie Comstock gold project covers 26 unpatented lode claims in Churchill County, Nevada. The project hosts a low-sulfidation epithermal system localized along an east-dipping range-front normal fault (Dixie Comstock Mine Fault) on the east flank of the Stillwater Range Mineralization.
The original gold discovery occurred in April 1934. By 1940 a 200-foot decline shaft and a 100-foot vertical shaft with four levels at 38 feet, 57 feet, 73 feet and 88 feet had been developed. A 40-ton amalgamating mill with a flotation circuit was constructed to treat the ore at the site.
The majority of the historic mining occurred prior to 1942 when the War Production Board issued a limitation work order under which the Dixie Comstock Mine was shut down after producing 17,880 tons of gold-silver ore. The ratio of gold to silver was reported to be 2:3, with a “gold equivalent” grade of 0.793 oz/ton. In subsequent years, sporadic small-scale mining occurred, but the majority of activities focused on further delineation of the gold mineralization with 180 holes drilled in close vicinity to the mine workings over multiple drill campaigns and operators.
A historical resource estimate was conducted for the project, but Getchell is not relying on this estimate and a qualified person for Getchell Gold. has not done sufficient work to confirm the historical resources.
Hot Springs Peak Gold Project
The Hot Springs Peak (HSP) property is an early-stage gold exploration project in Humboldt County, Nevada. The HSP gold project has seen limited exploration, but there are indications of a Carlin-style alteration system. The property is located within the Northern Nevada Rift, which is home to numerous mines and deposits and is at a structural intersection similar to the Barrick and Newmont’s Getchell Gold Mine.
Drilling by Getchell Gold in the summer of 2019 had positive results including in hole HSP-RC5 which intersected a 26-meter gold-arsenic zone. The zone averages 0.133 g/t gold with one interval running 0.69 g/t gold.
Management Team
William Wagener – Chairman, CEO and Director
William Wagener is an internationally experienced mining executive who has been involved in the exploration, development and operation of resource projects across the globe in a variety of commodities. He has held numerous executive positions in publicly traded resource companies. Wagener received a Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering from the University of Missouri–Rolla.
Mike Sieb – President and Director
Before becoming president of Getchell Gold, Mike Sieb served as a director since December 2018. He has also been a director and officer of numerous publicly traded companies over his 30-year career with his expertise extending across multiple commodities and jurisdictions. He is currently president of Explorex Resources, focused on the acquisition and development of international cobalt projects and other elements critical to the battery sector; and he is senior project manager for the development stage Mariana Lithium Brine project in Argentina. Mike Sieb holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Science in geology.
Jerry Bella – Independent Director
Jerry Bella is an independent financial consultant with over 40 years of experience assisting numerous private and publicly traded companies including oil and gas, exploration, mineral resource exploration, manufacturing and high-tech companies. Until recently, he has been providing services to a multi-billion-dollar market-capitalized leading China-based integrated lithium producer.
Scott Frostad – Vice-president of Exploration
Scott Frostad’s experience in the mining industry spans over three decades. He brings to his position as vice-president of exploration a strong background in mineral exploration with renowned gold mining companies such as Lac Minerals, Teck and Placer Dome. Frostad is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario with a BSc in geology and holds a MASc. in Mining Engineering from the University of British Columbia. He is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia and the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan.