PolarX Limited (ASX: PXX) has announced high-grade assay results of up to 37 g/t gold and 1590 g/t silver from its due-diligence sampling at the Humboldt Range Gold-Silver Project in Nevada, USA.
The company said that sampling finalises technical due diligence on the highly prospective but under-explored project where previous results included up to 3,384 g/t gold.
PXX said that legal due diligence is on track for completion this quarter with field work scheduled to start in April.
Humboldt project
Humboldt Range is situated between two large active precious metal mining operations: the Florida Canyon Mine (>5Moz gold) and the Rochester Mine (>400Moz silver + >3Moz gold) and contains numerous small-scale historical mine workings, dormant since 1927.
The Project comprises two groups of lode claims: Black Canyon and Fourth of July, neither of which has been extensively explored using modern techniques.
Numerous high-grade gold and silver assays from 2006-2007 sampling of outcropping veins and grab sampling from the dumps of old mine workings occur in both groups of claims, with peak values up to 3,384g/t gold, 2,837g/t silver, 22.9% lead and 3.1% zinc.
DD validation sampling
PolarX had undertaken due diligence sampling as part of its current option to acquire a Mining Lease Agreement over the highly prospective Humboldt Range project. Humboldt Range comprises 177 lode mining claims in Black Canyon and Fourth of July.
Victoria Gold Corp had briefly evaluated the Humboldt Range between July 2005 and July 2009. A total of 227 samples were collected on the Black Canyon and Fourth of July claims.
Of the 227 samples previously collected on the Humboldt Range claims, 44 returned assays over 1g/t Au, of which 19 were above 10g/t Au. Locally very high silver and lead grades were also recorded.
PolarX’s representatives visited the claims in late November 2020 and validated several of the Victoria Gold Corp sample locations. Ten samples were collected at these locations.
PXX said that the assay results have confirmed the presence of high grades of gold and silver.
High-grade gold and silver
PXX said that the DD validation sampling at several sites confirmed presence of high grades of gold and silver in outcropping veins and historic mine dumps, with peak values of up to 37.7g/t gold and 18g/t silver at Black Canyon and up to 31.2g/t gold and up to 1,590g/t silver at Fourth of July.
The DD validation assay results are as shown below.
The company said that the assay results have provided strong validation of the previous exploration data, and allowed PolarX to finalise its technical due-diligence on the project.
Option over Humboldt Range
PolarX has paid US$35,000 to secure an option over the Humboldt project; it can exercise the option by paying a further US$175,000 (in stages) and issuing 5M shares to the vendor and paying the owner a 2.5% NSR upon production with US$10,000 monthly advance royalty payments from September 2022.
Updates and next steps
PolarX said that in addition to evaluating individual high-grade veins as possible mining targets, it intends to evaluate these structural corridors to determine if modern-scale bulk mineable widths and grades are present. This will include geological mapping, rock chip and channel sampling, and ground geophysics.
PXX reported that it has commenced staking ~100 additional lode claims in the Fourth of July area to consolidate the land holdings.
The company said that a suitable work program will be developed following more comprehensive review, of previously acquired data. PXX said that the potential drilling targets will be identified once technical due diligence and further surface sampling and mapping has been completed.
