Newrange Gold still advancing highly prospective assets in Nevada and Ontario

• Pamlico is new gold discovery in virtually unexplored area of Nevada
• Nevada rated fifth-largest gold producer and number one mining destination in the world
• Exciting ground in Ontario too

What Newrange Gold does:

Newrange Gold Corp’s (CVE:NRG) flagship project is the high-grade, near-surface gold discovery at Pamlico in mining-friendly Nevada, US.

The company boasts a large footprint, covering 2,548 hectares, which also encompasses a past gold producing area (with old mine workings) but has been unexplored and in private hands (three families) since 1896 so it has seen almost no modern exploration techniques.

Newrange is earning into 100% of Pamlico, which lies along US Highway 95, via staged annual payments up to 2044. There are around 8,000 meters (m) of tunnels scattered throughout the district and 300 adits (entrances) in the old workings but no maps and data.

The state of Nevada is a well-known mining hotspot and the world’s fifth-largest producer of the yellow metal, with an eye-watering 169.1 million ounces having been generated from the state between 1835 and 2018.

In June last year, the group revealed it had agreed to sell its Colombian assets (consisting of the El Dovio and Anori exploration projects) to Australia’s Andean Mining Corp for US$1 million to focus on the Pamlico group of mines, which includes the Good Hope, Gold Bar and Sunset mines nearby. In September,  Andean made its first-anniversary payment of US$250,000 for the purchase of the El Dovio exploration project in Colombia.

And in November last year, it emerged that a subsidiary of GoldMining Inc (CVE:GOLD) would buy Newrange’s Yarumalito gold project in central Colombia for $1.2million in shares and cash ($200,000 in cash). The asset covers 1,456 hectares of highly prospective ground a few kilometres north of the famed Marmato district.

Newrange retains a 1% net smelter returns (NSR) royalty, which can be bought by GoldMining at any time before the completion of a feasibility study for $1 million.

The firm also holds the 3,850 hectare North Birch Gold project (the new name for its optioned Western Fold Property and H Lake property. The ground lies around 100 kilometers (km) northeast of the town of Red Lake, Ontario.

How is it doing:

In late July, Newrange revealed the first drill results from an ongoing program at its Pamlico project highlighted by up to 9.5 grams per ton (g/t) gold.

Two months later, the company had sunk 34 holes over 3,462 meters (m), mostly along an 800-meter length of Pamlico Ridge between high-grade mineralization drilled in 2017 and the historic Gold Bar mine. Up to 10,000m is expected to be drilled in the next few months.

One hole in the Merritt Zone at the property hit 14.85 g/t gold and 3.57 g/t silver over a 9.15-meter interval from a depth of 53.35 to 62.5m.

In early December, Newrange announced the discovery of a new gold zone at Pamlico, around 1,300m north-northeast of the Pamlico Ridge area. Most notable was Hole 91, which intersected 0.7 g/t gold over 18.3m within a larger envelope of 0.4 g/t gold over 51.8m.

Reverse circulation (RC) drilling is used as the holes are relatively shallow and designed to test the continuity of near-surface gold mineralization around and between the historic workings of the Pamlico, Gold Bar, and Good Hope mines. 

Applications have been submitted for permitting the rest of the drill program and once that is received and roadwork completed, drilling will continue with a combination of RC and diamond drilling in new target areas, the group said.

In other business, the group is selling its remaining non-core Colombian assets to Andean Mining Corporation, which is a private Australian company. As part of the agreement, Newrange Gold will receive US$750,000 in February 2021.

In January 2020 to augment the Nevada asset, Newrange enlarged its footprint in the famous Red Lake area of Ontario with a new option agreement to earn 100% of the H Lake property from Bounty Gold Corp.

The new project is contiguous to the western boundary of the firm’s Western Fold property (now called the North Birch gold project) in the Birch-Uchi greenstone, which Newrange optioned from AurCrest Gold Inc late in 2019. Together, the two properties encompass 3,850 hectares and cover the entire iron formation package.

What the broker says:

Noble Capital Markets in early December reiterated an Outperform rating on Newrange a day after the miner announced the discovery of a new gold zone at its flagship Pamlico project in Nevada. 

The new zone was discovered after drilling a hole to test a near-surface anomaly near the historic Central and Sunset mines. 

Hole 91, which Noble cited in its note, intersected 0.7 grams per ton (g/t) gold over 18.3m within a larger envelope of 0.4 g/t gold over 51.8m. The entire interval from 122m to the bottom of the hole at the 335.4m level is anomalous in gold and averages around 0.2 g/t.

Analyst Mark Reichman said that drilling will resume on or around December 5 and Newrange expects to drill at least another 3,000m in about 20 holes from 75m to 465m to follow up on recent drilling. A second drill may be deployed with diamond drilling at greater depth commencing as early as January.

“In our view, the company has made significant progress with its exploration and drilling program at Pamlico,” he wrote. “While receipt of outstanding assay results could act as catalysts for the stock assuming positive outcomes, more important news may be on horizon as the company conducts diamond drilling to test the large anomaly identified in a geophysical survey designed to identify sulfide bearing rock.”

Noble has a price target of US$0.20 on the stock, which recently traded around US$0.03 a share in New York and at C$0.11 a share in Canada.    

What the boss says:

Newrange Gold Robert Archer, CEO, speaking to Proactive’s Steve Darling, on the Nevada work, said: “This first pass will focus in and around those historic, underground workings and will give us a much better sense as to the distribution of the gold, the continuity, grades, that type of thing because these areas have never really been drill tested before as far as I know.”