(TheNewswire)
Vancouver, British Columbia - TheNewswire - July 18, 2024 :Headwater Gold Inc. (CSE: HWG) (OTCQB: HWAUF) (the "Company"or "Headwater") is pleased to announce the commencement ofdrilling at the Spring Peak project in Nevada. The program is designedto follow-up on Headwater’s 2022 and 2023 drill programs whichdiscovered high-grade epithermal veins in two distinct target areas(see Headwater news release dated March 2, 2023).
Highlights:
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Jurisdiction: Spring Peak is located in the Walker Lane belt of Nevada, adjoiningHecla Mining Company’s (NYSE: HL) past producing AuroraMine
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Drilling Program: Up to approximately 7,000 metres of drilling is planned,utilizing a combination of diamond core and reverse circulation(“RC”) drilling.
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Funding: Thedrill program is fully funded by Newmont Corporation (“Newmont”)(NYSE: NEM) pursuant to the option and earn-in transaction announcedon August 16, 2022.
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Objectives:
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Test for extensions up-dip and down-dip from high-gradeveins discovered by previous Headwater drilling at the Disco Zone,which intercepted 34.72 m grading 2.73 grams pertonne gold (“g/t Au”), including 15.92 g/t Au over 2.38 m and10.43 g/t Au over 2.01 m (see Headwater NewRelease dated January 9, 2023).
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Test for along-strike extensions of high-grademineralization within the Bear Fault corridor, both to the southwestand to the northeast of the central Disco Zone.
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Test multiple additional high-priority target areas onthe property with initial scout drilling including undrilled targetareas on recently acquired private lands.
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Caleb Stroup, President and CEO of the Company, states: “We are very happy to kickoff this fully funded drill program at Spring Peak with our partnerNewmont. This year’s drilling represents a very excitingopportunity to extend zones of known high-grade mineralization andexpand the footprint of exploration by testing new target areas withinitial scout drilling. Approximately half of the planned 7,000metres of drilling will be allocated to the Bear Fault corridor whichhosts high-grade veins at the Disco Zone and remains open along strikein both directions as well as up and down-dip. The remainder of ourplanned drilling will be focused on initial tests of new high-prioritytarget areas, including the first drilling on newly acquired privatelands in the western portion of the land package. We will also lookto drill the initial holes into several compelling targets just southof the Bear Fault in newly recognized parallel fault structures. Webelieve this year’s program represents a great opportunity for theCompany to significantly advance the Spring Peak project and continueto build on quality results from our previous drilling.”
Figure 1: Map of the Spring Peak project area showingexisting and proposed 2024 drill holes.
2024 Drill Program:
The 2024 drill program is expected to consist of up to7,000 metres of drilling over 20 to 25 holes, utilizing one core andone RC drill rig. The primary objectives of the drill program are totest for extensions of known mineralization along the Bear Faultcorridor and test multiple new targets across the property withinitial scout drilling. Drilling is authorized for 2024 underexisting drill permits with the United States Forest Service and theNevada Bureau of Mining Regulation and Reclamation.
Disco Zone : The Disco Zone wasdiscovered by Headwater in 2022 by drilling beneath a thickaccumulation of unmineralized silica sinter at surface and hosts aseries of mineralized epithermal veins at depth within aproperty-scale fault zone referred to as the Bear Fault. The 2023drill program expanded the known strike extent of the Disco Zone toover 400 m, with mineralization remaining open in all directions.Drilling to date in the Disco Zone has intercepted multiple discreteveins with textures indicative of epithermal boiling, includingginguro banding, silica replacement of lattice-bladed calcite and veinsediments. Re-interpreted geophysical (CSAMT resistivity) data (Figure2) shows a strong association between silicification and epithermalmineralization and high apparent resistivity.
A primary objective of the 2024 drill program is toexpand the Disco Zone both up and down-dip. Drill results from latein the 2023 drill program highlighted the up-dippotential with drill hole SP23-32 intercepting 9.44 g/t Au over 3.66 mwithin a broader zone of 39.81 m grading 1.93 g/t Au near the top ofthe current drill pattern (see Headwater News Release dated February13, 2024). Approximately 180 metres of vertical potential remainsuntested above drill hole SP23-32 within a strong coincidental CSAMTresistivity anomaly (Figure 2). Several planned holes have beendesigned to test this target in the 2024 program.
Figure 2: Cross sectional view (200m wide) looking southwest showing association of gold mineralizationwith high resitivity feature revealed by CSAMT geophysics. The drillprogram underway will also test an adjacent high restivity zone withan antithetic orientation.
Bear Fault Step OutDrilling : Multiple drill holes are planned to test for extensions ofmineralization along a 1.5 km segment of the Bear Fault corridor, bothnortheast and southwest of the central Disco Zone (Figure 1). Drilling to date has demonstrated the importance of the Bear Faultstructure as a fluid conduit at the Disco Zone, highlighting potentialfor discovering extensions to the known high-grade mineralization oradditional high-grade shoots.
Only one drill hole has intercepted the Bear Faultoutside of the main Disco Zone. In 2023, st epout drill hole SP23-37 was completed approximately 400 m northeast ofthe main Disco Zone on the Pioneer target below new surface sampling,which returned up to 3.61 g/t Au in rock chipsamples of veins with quartz-after-calcite and other epithermal veintextures. This hole encountered sulfide-richsilica-cemented breccias and quartz veins in the hanging wall of themain Bear Fault structure, including a 58.98 m zone of anomalous goldwith four assay intervals grading over 1 g/t Au at a vertical depth ofapproximately 350 metres. Up-dip and along-strike follow up drillholes are proposed as part of the 2024 drill program on the Pioneertarget.
Scout Drilling : Approximatelyhalf of the planned 2024 drill program at Spring Peak will be focusedon first-pass scout drilling of multiple high-priority target areas onthe property, including targets on newlyacquired private lands which have no prior drilling. The western portion of the Spring Peak project was recentlyacquired through two lease agreements with options to purchase privatelands within the project area (see Headwater News Release datedNovember 1, 2023). In addition to potential long term infrastructureoptionality, these private lands host a number of high-priorityexploration targets. A property-scale northeast trending structureknown as the Bug Fault is a primary focus for initial scout drillingon the private lands (Figure 1) and occupies afavorable structural orientation, broadly parallel the trend of theDisco Zone and the high-grade veins at the nearby Aurora mine complex. Epithermal alteration occurs over the exposed strike extent of thefault and a large, altered rhyolite dome intrudes the Bug Fault in thewestern portion of the property. This dome hosts steam heatedepithermal alteration with abundant alunite alteration and elevatedmercury geochemistry. Several drill holes are planned along anapproximately 1.5 km strike extent of the Bug Fault corridor.
Recent geological mapping, surface geochemistry andre-interpretation of CSAMT resistivity geophysics has also highlightedseveral additional new target areas in the core of the property. Northeast-trending (Disco Zone and Aurora parallel) features will bethe primary focus, including a strong CSAMT anomaly in the immediatehangingwall of Disco Zone (Figure 2) which Headwater geologistsinterpret as a potential antithetic mineralized structure. Multipleadditional parallel features in both the hangingwall and footwall ofthe Disco Zone/Bear Fault will also be tested.
About the Spring PeakProject: The Spring Peak project is located inthe Aurora Mining District in the Walker Lane belt, west-centralNevada, approximately 50 km southwest of the town of Hawthorne. Theproject adjoins Hecla Mining Company’s past-producing Aurora Minecomplex, where existing infrastructure includes a 350 ton per daymill, several production water wells, and high-voltage three-phasepower. Drilling at the Disco Zone has confirmed the presence ofhigh-grade gold mineralization, including significant intersectionssuch as 15.92 g/t Au over 2.38 m and 10.43 g/t Au over 2.01 m within abroader zone of 2.73 g/t Au over 34.72 m and 9.44 g/t Au over 3.66 mwithin a broader zone of 39.81 m grading 1.93 g/t Au.
Headwater holds an option to acquire a 100% undividedinterest in the Spring Peak project from Orogen Royalties (TSXV: OGN),subject to retained royalties and subject to Newmont’s option toacquire up to 75% of the project following certain expenditures andpreparation of a Pre-Feasibility Study within a designated timeframe.
About Headwater Gold:
Headwater Gold Inc. (CSE: HWG, OTCQB: HWAUF) is atechnically-driven mineral exploration company focused on theexploration and discovery of high-grade precious metal deposits in theWestern USA. Headwater is aggressively exploring one of the mostwell-endowed and mining-friendly jurisdictions in the world with agoal of making world-class precious metal discoveries. Headwater hasa large portfolio of epithermal vein exploration projects and atechnical team of experienced geologists with diverse capital markets,junior and major mining company backgrounds. The Company is systematically drilltesting several projects in Nevada and in August 2022 and May 2023announced significant transactions with Newmont where it acquired a9.9% strategic equity interest in the Company and entered into earn-inagreements on several of Headwater’s projects.
Headwater is part of the NewQuest Capital Group whichis a discovery-driven investment enterprise that builds value throughthe incubation and financing of mineral projects and companies. Further information about NewQuest can be found on the companywebsite at www.nqcapitalgroup.com .
For more information, please visit the Company'swebsite at www.headwatergold.com .
On Behalf of the Board ofDirectors
Caleb Stroup
President and CEO
+1 (775) 409-3197
For further information, please contact:
Brennan Zerb
Investor Relations Manager
+1 (778) 867-5016
Qualified Person:
The technical information contained in this newsrelease has been reviewed and approved by Scott Close, P.Geo (158157),a “Qualified Person” (“QP”) as defined in National Instrument43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
Forward-Looking Statements:
This news release includes certainforward-looking statements and forward-looking information(collectively, “forward-looking statements”) within the meaning ofapplicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other thanstatements of historical fact, included herein including, withoutlimitation, statements regarding future capital expenditures,exploration activities and the specifications, targets, results,analyses, interpretations, benefits, costs and timing of them,Newmont’s anticipated funding of the earn-in projects and the timingthereof, and the anticipated business plans and timing of futureactivities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Althoughthe Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can giveno assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often,but not always, forward looking information can be identified by wordssuch as “pro forma”, “plans”, “expects”, “may”,“should”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”,“forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates”, “believes”,“potential” or variations of such words including negativevariations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, eventsor results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken orachieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results,performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially fromany future results, performance or achievements expressed or impliedby the forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factorsinclude, among others, risks related to the anticipated business plansand timing of future activities of the Company, including theCompany’s exploration plans and the proposed expenditures forexploration work thereon, the ability of the Company to obtainsufficient financing to fund its business activities and plans, therisk that Newmont will not elect to obtain any additional interest inthe earn-in projects in excess of the minimum commitment, the abilityof the Company to obtain the required permits, changes in laws,regulations and policies affecting mining operations, the Company’slimited operating history, currency fluctuations, title disputes orclaims, environmental issues and liabilities, as well as those factorsdiscussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’sprospectus dated May 26, 2021 and other filings of the Company withthe Canadian Securities Authorities, copies of which can be foundunder the Company’s profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.
Readers are cautioned not to placeundue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakesno obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements, exceptas otherwise required by law.
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