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New Jersey Mining Company Receives Permits to Initiate Open Pit Mining at Golden Chest
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho, June 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New Jersey Mining Company (OTCQB:NJMC) (“NJMC” or the “Company”) announced today that it has received th
About this update from Idaho Strategic Resources, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho, June 21, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New Jersey Mining Company (OTCQB:NJMC) (“NJMC” or the “Company”) announced today that it has received the permits necessary to proceed with small-scale open pit mining operations at the Golden Chest Mine near Murray, Idaho. The proposed open pit is located in an area of Idaho Vein outcrop, about 200 meters above the recently built mine portal. The mining plan is the result of optimization studies based on extensive core drilling completed by Golden Chest LLC (NJMC and Marathon Gold) in 2011 and 2012. Tightly-spaced (25-meter grid) drilling in the outcrop area yielded multiple intercepts of high-grade, near-surface gold mineralization, highlighted by Hole GC 11-39 which assayed 7.62 grams per tonne (gpt) gold over 9.3 meters, beginning just 3.4 meters below the surface. Engineering studies completed by Mine Systems Design, Inc. include the creation of a 3-dimensional block model that features a starter pit containing an estimated 13,000 tonnes of mineralized material at an average grade of 4.99 gpt gold, or approximately 2,100 ounces of recoverable gold, with excellent potential for expansion. Ore will be shipped to the Company’s nearby, fully-permitted, New Jersey Mill in Kellogg, Idaho. NJMC President John Swallow stated, “We’re looking to mine the starter pit this summer and fall, and to restart the mill, while the underground mine workings are dewatered. Meanwhile, we continue to explore strategic financing options to fund the resumption of underground mine operations as soon as possible. The more we study the Golden Chest land package, the more potential we see — high-grade, easily-accessible ore pockets within an area of substantial investment and infrastructure within a district-scale exploration property.” Trenching was conducted in the starter pit area last fall to confirm modeled gold values and obtain metallurgical samples for flotation testing. Trench samples were taken in 1.5-meter intervals nearly perpendicular to the strike of the vein system, revealing a wide zone of quartz veining, quartz breccia, and silica flooding. Six test samples were extracted for fire assay from the larger trench samples, returning an average grade of 4.73 gpt gold over about 9 meters, similar to the modeled gold grade of 4.99 gpt. Portions of the remaining trenched materi...