Great Western Mining upbeat on progress in Nevada

The AIM-traded firm said that in September, a ground magnetics survey was carried out over the principal prospects in the Olympic acreage, with the results now analysed.

It said that at Trafalgar Hill, a “very strong” magnetic anomaly indicating the potential for precious metals had now been established beneath the target area.

The board said that of particular interest was establishing a cross-fault continuation of the veins which were the source of precious metals for the prolific OMCO Mine, and which produced “very high” grades of gold and silver until the 1940s.

A magnetometer survey revealed “encouraging” magnetic anomalies, with the next stage to be a follow-up ground magnetics survey by the end of October, to define the anomalies around the faulting more clearly.

That would be followed by an induced polarisation survey over the strongest anomalies, aiming to locate buried, sulphide-rich gold-silver mineralisation.

Timing of starting the survey could not be finalised yet, the board said, due to the high level of mineral exploration activity in the area at present.

At the Rock House Group, Great Western said a magnetometer survey was currently in progress.

Trench sampling during the summer in the Southern Alteration Zone yielded two areas of elevated gold mineralisation, with 1.5 metres at 0.23 grams of gold per tonne from 9.14 metres, and 1.5 metres at 0.10 grams of gold per tonne from 18.29 metres, both in trench four.

Between those two intercepts, significant areas had yet to be sampled which would be infilled with a further trenching and sampling programme, timing dependent on contractor availability.

The follow-up programme would also target outcrop south of trench five, which appeared to be along strike of the newly-discovered zone and not yet sampled.

“We are fortunate in having numerous gold and silver prospects across our extensive land holdings in Mineral County, Nevada, in addition to the copper potential already established,” said chairman Brian Hall.

“In parallel with the work we are currently doing to commercialise gold and silver at the Mineral Jackpot group of claims, the newly acquired Olympic Gold Project is proving to be of high interest to our exploration team.”

Hall said the results the company was seeing from the work it had now done on the Rock House Group supported the prospectivity of those claims, which had never before been mined and which the firm identified from satellite imagery.

“The JS Group and the Huntoon Valley are also prospective for precious metals, and we will be targeting these in due course.”

At 1256 BST, shares in Great Western Mining Corporation were up 1.9% at 0.32p.