TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Nevada-focused gold miner Klondex Mines on Monday announced that a new technical report for its Fire Creek underground gold project had been completed, validating the project as a high-grade endeavour.

The new National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource estimate now consisted of measured and indicated resources totalling 295 900 oz of gold at a grading of 44.7 g/t gold and inferred resources of 421 400 oz of gold grading 19.2 g/t, when applying a 7 g/t gold cutoff.

The new mineral resource estimate, completed by consulting resource professionals Practical Mining (PM), illustrated the high grades at Fire Creek, and confirmed the continuity of gold mineralisation down dip and along strike from work completed mainly in the Main zone.

"We have reached a major milestone in defining the Fire Creek deposit, only limited by the completed drilling and underground development programme. This high-quality resource estimate shows the potential of Fire Creek and is substantiated by the underground development programme.

“The deposit remains open along strike and at depth, providing Klondex with upside for resource growth given that 93% of Fire Creek's property is unexplored,” Klondex president and CEO Paul Huet said.

He added that the company had focused drilling to define the Main zone and could now begin to expand exploration and step out the drilling, providing the needed data to convert the existing known mineralisation into additional resource ounces that could further unlock value at Fire Creek.

"We will use this resource and the knowledge gained from our underground development programme to complete a preliminary economic assessment being prepared by PM, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2013. The high-grade nature of this deposit will play a key role in assessing economic scenarios for Fire Creek,” Huet noted.

Meanwhile, the company on Friday announced changes to its board, saying Larry Phillips had resigned as chairperson, and would be replaced in the interim by current member Blair Schultz. The company has also appointed Richard Hall as a special adviser to the board.