Columbus Gold Drills 45.7 meters of 1.26 g/t Gold at Eastside

 

VANCOUVER, BC - Columbus Gold Corp. reported results of the final fourteen (14) holes completed from the 2016 drilling program at its 100% owned Eastside gold project in Nevada.  All assay results have been delivered to a third party consultant, Mine Development Associates of Reno Nevada, who are compiling a database and building a three dimensional model to be used in their initial evaluation of the drill results, with a view of completing a maiden resource estimate.

Eastside is a district scale project consisting of 725 claims covering 57.7 sq. km (22.55 sq. miles), in an area of outstanding infrastructure.  Significant gold values of up to 27.9 g/t have been obtained in surface sampling at Eastside and so far seven (7) large geochemical anomalies have been identified, however drilling to date has been confined almost exclusively to one target (referred to as the Original Target), in an area of only approximately 1,250 X 800 meters, or about 1 sq. km., of the large 57.7 sq. km land package. Thorough oxidation is remarkably deep at Eastside in certain areas, exceeding 300 meters in places. 

The 2016 drilling employed one reverse circulation rotary rig and one core drill.  Columbus completed 17,500 meters of drilling in 2016 including 12,663 meters of rotary drilling and 4,837 meters of core. Drilling was completed in September 2016. Gold and silver mineralization at Eastside occurs in two broad, northerly-trending zones, called the East and West Zones, which coincide with two separate, northerly-trending, rhyolite dome complexes. Both East and West Dome complexes are made up of multiple rhyolite domes. Drilling has established that the strike of significant mineralization extends at least 450 meters on the East Zone and 850 meters on the West Zone. Both zones remain open to depth, to the south, and possibly to the north. Both zones contain numerous parallel northerly structures with minor offsets. These minor structures likely formed upon reactivation of the major northerly fault zones that originally controlled the emplacement of the rhyolite domes. Gold and silver in both zones are associated with silicification and adularia replacement cut by multiphase quartz and adularia veining and stockworks.  The rhyolite domes host the bulk of the mineralization but andesite near the dome margins acts as an important host rock as well.

A goal of the last 14 holes was to determine the limits of the East and West Zones, and to determine if the West Zone continues further to the west and to depth below previous holes. Geologic logging, along with the gold values encountered in core holes ES-123 and ES-129, indicate both the East and West Zone remain open to the south, into an undrilled area. Geologic and alteration mapping by Columbus, along with favorable gold and trace element geochemistry in Columbus surface sampling, indicate that favorable geology for gold mineralization extends an additional 1.5 kilometers to the south of the area drilled to date.  In addition the West Zone remains open to the southwest and west.

On a regional basis, Eastside gold mineralization occurs in a discrete package of overlapping, rhyolite flow dome complexes which were emplaced and/or erupted 7.2 million years ago.  These flow dome complexes are confined to an outcrop belt about 3.2 km (2 miles) wide and 11.2 km (7 miles) long which is completely enclosed in Columbus Gold‚s claim block.  Detailed mapping and sampling of the entire claim block by Columbus geologists has yielded numerous additional targets outside of the area of the current drilling.

The Eastside project has outstanding infrastructure for mining and processing, is 32 km (20 miles) west of Tonopah, Nevada, and lies 9.7 km (6 miles) north of paved highway US 95, the main road route from Las Vegas to Reno.  A good County-maintained, gravel road from the highway, along with a major power transmission line both pass through the claim block.  The current drilling area is on the east flank of the Monte Cristo Range and a portion of the claim block extends well into the adjacent flats, which would provide excellent operating sites.  The valley is known to have shallow water available in the same aquifer, which provided water for milling the Tonopah ores in the early 1900's.  The area is high desert with sparse vegetation, and year-round drilling is possible.