JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Adding to the company's Nevada Mining Unit exploration potential, gold and silver miner Gold Resource Corporation has staked additional claims that more than double the Gold Mesa gold-bearing property, in Nevada, which now comprises 4 580 acres.

The company said in a statement on Thursday that it had filed claim papers with the Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management and the Mineral County Recorder relating to an area with 140 unpatented claims over 2 800 acres.

The tenement surrounded the original Gold Mesa property, which was recently optioned by the company, and more than doubled the land position at the Gold Mesa property.

Gold Resource outlined that a small portion of Gold Mesa property claims were mined historically as an underground mine in the early 1900s and as an openpit mine in the late 1980s. 

More recently, prior surface drilling on the property had returned “significant” gold grades near surface, including 2.42 g/t of gold over 9.1 m.

These grades were in line with surface samples taken by the company running as high as 2.51 g/t of gold.

Gold Resource believed the property had the potential for a high-grade gold openpit, or multiple gold openpits, with mineralisation at shallow depths below surface. 

The company was evaluating a spring 2016 drill campaign at Gold Mesa with the goal of extending known gold mineralisation through infill and step-out drill holes. 

Should future drill programmes be deemed successful, the company would consider making a production decision as soon as possible. 

“We believe this additional land position at Gold Mesa provides shareholders significant exploration upside with what is now a much larger property position.

“We took advantage of the current bear market in metals and were able to stake these additional claims. We are excited about the critical mass building as we prepare to drill this property to test the expansion potential of previous high-grade gold drill intercepts near surface,” commented CEO and president Jason Reid. 
 
Exploration VP Barry Devlin added that the property satisfied all of the group’s evaluation criteria for an advanced-stage gold exploration project.

“The expanded land position covers structural trends and extensions of potential gold mineralisation occurring as multiple stockwork vein systems and jasperoidal horizons,” he said.