Western Exploration (TSXV:WEX) (OTCQX:WEXPF) has started its 2022 diamond drill program at its 100%-owned Aura gold-silver project in Elko County, Nevada. The project is supported by Mineral Resource Technical Report dated October 2021 showing 652,271 gold equivalent ounces in the Indicated category and 665,357 gold equivalent ounces in the Inferred category.
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Western Exploration (TSXV:WEX) (OTCQX:WEXPF), a Nevada-focused precious metals exploration company, has started the 2022 diamond drill program at its Aura gold-silver project.
Born out of a 25-year history of advancing exploration projects in Nevada as a private company, its principal asset is its 100%-owned, 6,000-hectare Aura gold-silver project, located in Elko County, Nevada, approximately 120 kilometers north of the city of Elko.
In 2017, Agnico Eagle Mines became a partner and has invested more than US$14 million and currently owns approximately 18% and provides technical expertise through a joint technical committee with Western Exploration's management team.
The Aura Project, accessible year-round by highway and county roads with access to water and electricity nearby, is located 32 kilometers north of the Jerritt Canyon mine, which has been in continual operation since 1981.
The Aura Project is unique in the junior mining space insofar as resources have been identified in three different deposits, Doby George, Gravel Creek and Wood Gulch.
Doby George is one of the highest grade, undeveloped open pit heap leach resources in northeast Nevada.
The company has development, and mining rights on 930 hectares of privately owned fee lands through a mineral lease agreement with a local landowner and may purchase those fee lands at any time for the development of Doby George.
The Doby George mineral deposit was initially discovered by Homestake Mining Company in the mid 1980s.
Since that time, 827 drill holes have been completed, totaling 115,197 meters of drilling, including 74 drill holes, totaling 22,622 meters that were drilled by Western Exploration LLC between 1998 and 2017.
The Phase 1 Drill Program provides, among other things, for approximately 2,000 meters of large diameter core drilling in 10 to 12 drill holes at Doby George.
The project is supported by Mineral Resource Technical Report dated October 2021 showing 652,271 gold equivalent ounces in the Indicated category and 665,357 gold equivalent ounces in the Inferred category.
The purpose of the Phase 1 Drill Program is to evaluate areas within, and adjacent to, the current resource boundary.
The results of the Drill Program, including all metallurgical testing and other exploration activities completed at the Aura Project, will be used to determine the basis for completing Phase 2 of the exploration program, which is expected to focus on advancing the Doby George deposit towards the completion of a pre-feasibility study.
Metallurgical test work completed on oxidized material by Homestake Mining Company, Independence Mining Company, and Atlas Precious Metals Inc., has indicated favorable metallurgy for standard cyanide heap leach processing.
Results from the previous metallurgical testing completed on 52 bottle rolls and 23 column leach samples indicate that heap leach gold recoveries approaching seventy percent can be expected via a crush of 1 to 1.5 inches.
The shares, which began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange on January 19th, following a RTO, are currently trading at $1.10.
For more information please visit the company’s website, www.WesternExploration.com, contact Nichole Cowles, Investor Relations, at 775-240-4172 or by email at NicholeCowles@WesternExploration.com.