VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Feb. 6, 2017) - Nevada Exploration Inc. ("NGE" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:NGE)(OTCQX:NVDEF) is pleased to announce that it has received assay results for the first eleven drill holes of its current drilling program at NGE's Kelly Creek Basin Project using its newly-commissioned Scorpion Drill Rig (see news release dated October 31, 2016). NGE is very pleased to report that the drilling has encountered mineralized bedrock much shallower than previously indicated at an average depth of 67 metres (220 feet) at six separate locations over a 10km2 (4mi2) area, and that the alluvium on the bedrock contact contains elevated gold of up to 0.15g/t coincident with elevated gold in groundwater along the bedrock contact of up to 890ppt. NGE is also pleased to report that it has reduced its all-in drilling costs (including geology and analytical) with its Scorpion Drill Rig down to approximately $125US/metre ($38US/foot), which represents a 60% reduction in NGE's drilling costs for shallow, early-stage drill holes, and that NGE expects these costs to continue to fall towards its goal of $82US/metre ($25US/foot).
With the Scorpion Drilling results, along with NGE's earlier work, NGE has defined four mineralized targets at Kelly Creek. NGE is now drilling a cross section of approximately 10 drill holes across the first target, which is associated with a high-angle fault zone, similar in size and orientation to Newmont's nearby Lone Tree Mine (+5Moz), delineated by hydrogeochemistry and by gravity and seismic geophysics, and confirmed by earlier orientation drilling. NGE plans to continue its Scorpion Drilling program at Kelly Creek to complete similar cross sections at the three additional targets.
Wade Hodges, NGE's CEO explains: "These early results at Kelly Creek demonstrate the validity of our systematic and integrated exploration program. We are pairing good geology and conventional tools with new exploration targeting and drilling technology to lead the industry in under-cover exploration in Nevada. Major covered gold deposits are often associated with larger footprints of transported mineralization at the alluvium/bedrock contact in the immediately overlying alluvium, bedrock, and groundwater. We are using our Scorpion Drill Rig at Kelly Creek to collect drill samples of the alluvium and bedrock, as well as 3D groundwater samples, to reduce the search area and vector towards mineralization. We are presently focused on constraining the first of perhaps four mineralized footprints similar in size and orientation to Newmont's nearby Lone Tree Mine by following a trail of increasing gold and supporting trace-element geochemistry along the bedrock contact. By dramatically lowering the costs of early-stage drilling, we are significantly increasing our data density, allowing us to open up this new, otherwise blind and covered search space in a basin surrounded by more than 70Moz of gold. This is a game changer for Nevada."
About Kelly Creek Basin
The Kelly Creek Basin is located along the Battle Mountain - Eureka Gold Trend, and is bounded by multi-million-ounce gold deposits to the north (Twin Creeks, Getchell, Turquoise Ridge, and Pinson) and south (Lone Tree, Marigold, Trenton Canyon, Converse, Buffalo Valley, Copper Basin, and Phoenix) - together representing more than 70 million ounces of gold along the periphery of the Basin. Despite its close proximity to dense, world-class mineralization, the interior of the Kelly Creek Basin has seen limited systematic exploration activity to date because its bedrock is largely hidden by sand and gravel cover.
After his involvement in the discovery phase of the +5Moz Lone Tree gold deposit on the edge of the Kelly Creek Basin for Santa Fe Pacific Gold (now Newmont), which required approximately 80 conventional drill holes before intersecting any significant gold mineralization, Wade Hodges, NGE's CEO, closely followed the work of David Grimes of the US Geological Survey who demonstrated that collecting and analyzing groundwater samples in and around the Lone Tree deposit could have significantly reduced the drilling required to vector to the discovery drill hole. Mr. Grimes noted that one of the earlier drill holes located adjacent to the major ore-controlling structural zone failed to encounter any significant gold mineralization in bedrock, but that by analyzing the groundwater Mr. Grimes demonstrated that the groundwater in this location proximal to the deposit contained highly anomalous gold concentrations greater than 2,000ppt, which would have provided strong indications that the drill hole was potentially close to a mineralized source, warranting additional in-fill drilling in this area and possibly saving Santa Fe Pacific considerable time and expense drilling elsewhere on the Project.
Building on these observations, NGE has integrated the use of its proprietary hydrogeochemistry technology with conventional exploration methods to evaluate the larger Kelly Creek Basin, and has acquired 40.49 km2 (15.63 mi2) of mineral rights covering what NGE considers to be a highly prospective target area in the middle of the Basin along a portion of a structurally-controlled, shallow, covered bedrock high coincident with highly anomalous gold (up to >5,000ppt) and associated trace-element chemistry in groundwater.
NGE has advanced the Project by completing detailed groundwater sampling, seismic geophysics, gravity geophysics, and orientation drilling. NGE believes that the results to date at Kelly Creek have focused the area down to four mineralized deposit-footprint sized targets, each similar in scale and ore-controlling features to the nearby Lone Tree and Marigold deposits, within a larger gold-bearing hydrothermal system along a series of steeply dipping fault zones containing several horst and graben features defined by clear geologic offsets.
About Nevada Exploration Inc.
NGE is an exploration company focused on gold in Nevada. NGE is led by an experienced management team that has been involved with the discovery of more than 30 million ounces of gold in Nevada.
NGE has developed proprietary hydrogeochemistry (groundwater chemistry) exploration technology to explore for gold in Nevada's covered basins where traditional exploration techniques are challenged. NGE is aggressively applying this latest technology in covered deposit exploration to identify, acquire, and advance new exploration properties in Nevada's highly prospective yet underexplored covered basins.
Using its industry-leading exploration technology, NGE has assembled a portfolio of new gold projects, and has established itself as a major player in this world-class jurisdiction. NGE's business model is to leverage its properties and technology to create shareholder value through generative exploration and development.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Wade A. Hodges, CEO & Director, Nevada Exploration Inc., is the Qualified Person, as defined in National Instrument 43-101, and has prepared the technical and scientific information contained in this News Release.
