Great Western Mining reports 'extensive work' on projects

Nevada-focussed gold, silver and copper explorer and developer Great Western Mining updated the market on its activities on Friday, reporting that during 2021, extensive work had been undertaken on proposed processing projects both in the field and through desktop studies, based on data and material from both Mineral Jackpot and the OMCO Mine.

The AIM-traded firm said the work concluded that the potential recoveries from Mineral Jackpot alone were “materially greater” than previously thought.

A potential combination of processing material from both sites was likely to increase the scale and profitability of the final project.

At the Olympic Gold Project, Great Western said a permit had now been granted for auger-drilling up to 12 shallow holes in the large OMCO Mine tailings heap at the project, with drilling set to begin in the next few days musing the small multi-use coring rig, which the company had under contract.

“This will enable the company to calculate processable material in place, and samples from drilling will be analysed at an independent laboratory to assess recoverable grades of precious metals,” the board said in its statement.

“The company expects assay results by the year-end, which will be announced.

“The data gained from the results of the cores taken at the OMCO Mine tailings will be a critical factor in determining a project plan.”

At the Mineral Jackpot group, as the company had previously advised, planning of both bulk processing of spoil heaps and new exploration drilling had been restricted by the limitations of the mountain road which provides access to the site.

Following a site visit by contractors in October, the most severe problems were resolved, with the company aiming to upgrade the road before the 2022 work season.

The board said the road upgrade was already fully permitted, adding that alternative methods for bringing spoil heap material off the mountain once the road was being upgraded were being costed and appraised.

Looking at its exploration projects, Great Western said that at the East Mine (EM) group, an induced polarisation and resistivity geophysical survey was scheduled to start during the week beginning 1 November, to test the potential for copper porphyry-style mineralisation at depth, indicated by both historical drilling and surface sampling undertaken in 2019.

The survey would cover a surface area of three square kilometres reaching depths of 450 metres.

It said the survey would take around 10 days, subject to weather conditions, with processing and interpretation of results likely to be available in December.

Over the past 18 months, Great Western said it had conducted “extensive” ground surveys using a man-portable magnetometer unit, with the results both improving its understanding of the potential of the areas surveyed, and facilitating successful drilling operations during the 2021 work season.

However, some mountainous terrain, including part of Mineral Jackpot, was not suitable for such a survey, with the firm set to use a survey team and an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, to conduct magnetic surveys shortly in order to complete the group survey.

It would also use the same methods to survey the JS group, the TUN group and the Huntoon Valley area, saving a “great deal of time” and accelerating exploration of as-yet undrilled prospects.

A reconnaissance survey was currently being undertaken at Huntoon, with Great Western aiming to accelerate exploration activity over both the HUN and TUN groups, especially in the Huntoon valley where there were historical mine workings.

Finally, on the exploration drilling front, the company said that although a “severe shortage” of contractor availability and labour in the area delayed this year's plan for an autumn follow-up campaign to its successful spring and summer drill programme at Olympic Gold and the Rock House group, the company said it had received an assurance from its selected drilling contractors that they would undertake the programme early in the 2022 work season.

The board said the programme currently encompassed drilling up to 14,000 feet, or 4,267 metres, over the two projects.

Additional holes could be added to the programme.

“With funds in hand for our projects, Great Western is in a strong position going forward, moving ahead over our extensive exploration claims while the scale of the potential production operation under evaluation is constantly expanding,” said executive chairman Brian Hall.

“We are using the latter part of the current work season to bring forward operations on claims which we have not had the time to work on recently, in particular the Huntoon Valley and the East Mine group.”

At 1109 BST, shares in Great Western Mining Corporation were up 2.04% at 0.13p.