Pershing Gold’s advancements in the Relief Canyon project in Nevada over the last month have caught the attention of several analysts.
Pershing Gold Corp. (PGLC:NASDAQ; PGLC:TSX) announced results of phase 1 of its 2016 drill program at Relief Canyon in Nevada on Nov. 9. “Phase 1 of our 2016 Drilling Program continues to successfully extend the in-pit mineralization at Relief Canyon,” stated Stephen D. Alfers, Pershing Gold’s chairman, president and CEO, in the news release. “Offsets further extend to the west the high-grade zone discovered in the North Target Area in 2015.”
Alfers also announced that the company had begun drilling phase 2 of the program. “Phase 2 will test targets to the south and east of the pits and has the potential for satellite discoveries that could be a source of future production at Relief Canyon’s existing state-of-the-art processing facilities,” he stated.
Bhakti Pavani of Euro Pacific Capital noted on Nov. 10 that “three of the eleven [phase 1] drill holes. . .have intersected high-grade intercepts. These intercepts are located within the oxide or mixed zones of the deposit and have cyanide leach gold values which indicate leachable material.” She observed that “the phase 2 drill program is primarily an exploration program focused towards exploring the satellite deposits on the land package. . . it is also the Company’s first drilling program that is targeted both towards development and exploration.”
Heiko Ihle of Rodman and Renshaw noted in a Nov. 10 company update that some of the phase 1 holes “were drilled in an effort to test the metallurgical potential of higher-grade zones which are currently excluded from the resource estimate. Management has indicated that initial metallurgical work in these areas has proven to be promising, leading us to believe that additional ounces could be added to …read more