Diamond Drill Programme Underway In Nevada
Smooth Rock Ventures Corp. (TSXV: SOCK) has commenced a diamond drill programme at the Palmetto Gold project in Nevada.
The drill programme originally scheduled to begin mid-January 2021, was delayed due to COVID-19 related issues and restrictions.
Smooth Rock owns a 100% undivided interest in the Palmetto Project, consisting of 116 unpatented mining claims totalling 2217 acres located in Esmeralda County, Nevada, within the southern portion of the Walker Lane gold trend, easily accessible on a year-round basis.
This initial 2021 diamond drill programme is designed to expand the current resource by drilling the mineralised zones laterally and at depth, to extend the present known mineralisation.
Drilling will target the high-grade feeder chutes and explore other areas of the project outside of the inferred resource area.
The Palmetto Gold Project has had significant exploration work completed to date by Newmont Gold, Phelps Dodge Corp, Cambior Inc., Romarco Minerals, Curran Corp., Amselco Minerals, Escape Gold Group Inc. and most recently by ML Gold Corp.
To date, 173 drill holes totalling 43,940 meters have been completed on several targets within the Project. The initial “Discovery Hole” in 1988, was drilled by Phelps Dodge and bonanza gold-silver veins were subsequently drilled by Romarco Minerals in 1997-2002.
In 2020, Smooth Rock engaged WSP Canada Inc. to complete a current resource estimation of the Palmetto Project using drill data up to October 2017.
There are several additional mineralised zones hosting significant grades within close proximity to the inferred resource zones, contained in the current resource estimation of the Palmetto Project. These zones have yet to be included in the resource estimate due to drilling density. Smooth Rock sees these areas having immediate potential to significantly increase the overall resource on the Palmetto gold project by increasing the drilling density between mineralized shells. Evidence suggests that there is significant potential to expand the current resource in multiple directions.
