Riedel targets high-grade Arizona gold

Riedel Resources is set to drill its high-grade Kingman gold project in Arizona after engaging Boart-Longyear to commence drilling next month. The company is now in the final stages of permitting for the program which will focus on the Tintic prospect in its northern tenement area where previous drilling returned a grab bag of shallow high-grade intercepts including a stunning 3 metres at 98.8 grams per tonne gold and 151 g/t silver from just 20.6m down-hole.

Other notable intercepts from Tintic include 1.5m at 39.3 g/t gold and 323 g/t silver from 37.3m, 4.6m at 4.24 g/t gold from just 10.7m and an impressive 1.5m at 571 g/t silver from 33.5m down-hole. Modelling of the Tintic drilling shows the high-grade system to be at least 700m long and it remains open along strike and at depth.

The company is looking to extend the gold-silver-rich envelope of the mineralisation at Tintic when reverse circulation drilling commences in the weeks ahead.

We are looking forward to commencing drilling at our Kingman Project. We are fortunate to be able to utilise the same team to undertake the program, including our geologists and the experienced drill crew, both of whom did a terrific job completing the drilling earlier this year.

Given the high grades and shallow nature of the gold mineralisation seen in drilling to date at Tintic, we are very keen to get started. Subject to commencing drilling in September and laboratory turnaround times, we anticipate first drill assay results commencing in November 2021.

Riedel’s flagship Kingman project is located in north-west Arizona, near the old mining town of Chloride and about a 90-minute drive from Las Vegas, which sits to the north of the project in neighbouring Nevada.

Geologically, Kingman lies on the south-eastern extensions to the fertile Walker Lane gold trend, which runs along Nevada’s southern border with California and sits parallel to the famed Carlin and Battle Mountain gold trends further to the north.

The Walker Lake trend has proven a mecca for gold discoveries in the last 10-years. Corvus Gold’s unearthing of the Mother Lode and North Bullfrog gold deposits catapulted that company’s market capitalisation to more than C$474 million.

AngloGold Ashanti is also developing the Silicon gold deposit in the region whilst Kinross Gold is working on the multi-million-ounce Round Mountain deposit, providing a snapshot of the potential of this lucrative terrane in Arizona.

Gold production at Riedel’s Kingman project dates back to the 1880s when high-grade gold and silver ores were extracted from a number of mines adjacent to the town of Chloride, including the Merrimac, Tintic, Jim’s and Arizona Magma operations.

Mining and exploration in the area around Kingman has been largely dormant however since the 1940s leaving Riedel a blank canvas on which to employ its toolkit of modern exploration techniques.

The company’s structured approach to work across the precious metal rich terrane is already paying dividends, with drilling at Tintic returning a plethora of high-grade intercepts . Elsewhere, reconnaissance work to the south of Chloride has resulted in Riedel expanding its ground position in the region.

First-pass sampling across its new southern tenure, which sits immediately west of the Mineral Park copper-molybdenum porphyry mine, has already returned some impressive results including rock chip samples grading 8.8 g/t gold and up to 146 g/t silver. The tenure is now earmarked for systematic surface sampling to define targets for future drill testing.

With sampling continuing to turn up high-grade gold and silver results and drilling set to expand the gold-silver system at Tintic, Riedel is ramping up its exploration in Arizona and may quickly attract the market spotlight in this overlooked region of America’s once wild west.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au