Sandman Drilling Returns 1.23 oz./t
Newmont has provided drill results from six holes at Sandman's Silica Ridge deposit. Hole NSM-137, starting at a depth of 20 metres, returned:
42.28 grams per tonne gold (1.23 ounces per ton) over 7.56 metres (24.8 feet), including 98.24 g/t gold (2.86 oz/ton) overÊ2.65 metres; and
26.52 g/t gold (0.77 oz/ton) over 0.61 metres.
The remaining five holes provided by Newmont all intersected oxide gold mineralization starting within 15 metres of surface, including:
1.36 g/t gold (0.04 oz/ton) over 7.25 metres in NSM-125;
1.43 g/t gold (0.04 oz/ton) over 11.09 metres, in NSM-130.
Importantly, the high-grade style of gold intersected in NSM-137 is a consistent component of the mineralization at Sandman, reinforcing the high-quality nature of this epithermal system. Specifically, since Newmont began drilling at Sandman in 2008, 24% of all holes (26 out of 110) have returned intercepts of greater than 10 g/t gold over more than 1.0 metres.
Newmont has met its annual earn-in obligations and has continued to advance the project, completing more than 12,000 metres of drilling since 2008. As part of this year's program, Newmont is preparing an expanded Plan of Operations for 2010, which will include exploration drilling to test up to eight new targets, ongoing development drilling and additional geotechnical and metallurgical work.
Sandman is within trucking distance to Newmont's Twin Creeks mine, potentially eliminating the need for a stand-alone milling facility and other significant capital expenditures if the project were to proceed to production.
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