The underground mining of Sterling’s 144 zone produced 17,748 ounces gold since commencing operations in April 2012. In May 2015 with the 144 zone ore depleted, operations were terminated but residual gold continues to be recovered from the heap.
Plans for development of an open pit mine, and construction of a new heap leach pad, are in the final stage of permitting. An engineering company has been commissioned to establish the scope and cost of providing a potable water system that will meet State of Nevada requirements to obtain a Public Water Utility permit. The planned open pit mine would entail developing five open pits. The existing Sterling, Ambrose and Burro Pits would be pushed back and deepened, and the Panama and Water Tank Hill pits would be new pits.
Property Exploration
Soil sampling and geological mapping continues in an area of favorable geology along the northern flank of Bare Mountain. A laboratory program is underway to develop a bio-process which would economically recover additional gold from the Sterling mine heap pads. The historical Sterling heaps currently contain approximately 20,000 ounces of gold.
Sterling is fairly typical of a large number of similar deposits which occur in the western United States, particularly in Nevada’s Great Basin. These deposits are known as sediment-hosted, disseminated precious metal deposits or generically as Carlin-type deposits.