Viva Gold Corp has published a mineral resource estimate for its Tonopah Gold Project in western Nevada. The company trades on the TSX Venture Exchange as VAU. The company released the figures on March 1, 2018. The project sits on the Walker Lane Gold Trend, about 20 miles northeast of the town of Tonopah.
The estimate has an effective date of January 31, 2018, though it was published a month later. It covers in-pit constrained resources at a cutoff of 0.25 grams of gold per tonne. Here is how it breaks down.
- Measured: 1.5 million tonnes at 1.15 g/t, about 56,000 ounces.
- Indicated: 5.2 million tonnes at 0.78 g/t, about 130,000 ounces.
- Measured and indicated: 6.7 million tonnes at 0.95 g/t, about 186,000 ounces.
- Inferred: 9.6 million tonnes at 0.77 g/t, about 238,000 ounces.
The numbers rest on a long drilling history. Since 1980, operators have drilled 637 reverse circulation and core holes on the property, totaling 86,706 meters. In February 2018 Viva added four more core holes covering 575 meters, and gold assays from those holes were still pending.
The company has also changed the project’s economics. Viva cut the net smelter return royalty from 7% to 2%. It also holds an option to bring it down to 1% for a cash payment of $1.0 million.
Metallurgical testing is still under way. It aims to confirm whether gold can be recovered through heap leaching or agitation leaching. Meanwhile, Viva expects to file the NI 43-101 technical report within 45 days.
Thomas C. Matthews, MMSA-QP, principal resource geologist at Gustavson Associates, served as the qualified person for the estimate. President and chief executive James Hesketh said the resource points to a strong potential mining scenario. As the company noted, though, resources are not reserves, so their economic viability has not been shown.
