Beatty region experiencing an increased interest in gold exploration

Corvus Gold closed $2 million financing with AngloGold Ashanti to expand the Bullfrog District Exploration Program in December, another sign of heightened exploration activity in the Beatty region.

Jeff Pontius, president and CEO of Corvus, said in a press release that the additional funding will allow Corvus to expand its ongoing Mother Lode exploration as well as conduct a resource expansion program on the North Bullfrog project.

“Given the Preliminary Economic Assessment results announced last month and our ongoing resource expansion drill results, Corvus Gold is excited about the potential of this large and re-emerging Nevada gold district. Our planned work in 2019 will focus on resource expansion and new discovery drilling to continue to add value for our shareholders as we unlock the district-wide gold system,” Pontius said in a press release.

Corvus controls 100 percent of its North Bullfrog project, which covers approximately 86.6 square kilometers in the region. The property is made up of a number of private mineral leases of patented federal mining claims and 1,057 federal unpatented mining claims.

The company also controls 445 federal unpatented mining claims on the Mother Lode project totaling approximately 36.5 square kilometers. The total Corvus Gold land ownership now covers over 123 square kilometers, hosting two major new Nevada gold discoveries.

On Dec. 21, Corvus Gold announced that it issued 800,000 common shares at a price of $2.60 to AngloGold Ashanti. Proceeds of the financing are expected to fund an expanded exploration program at the Mother Lode and North Bullfrog projects.

Separately, Kinross Gold Corporation, a Canada-based silver and gold-mining company, said both of its mines in Nevada - in Round Mountain and Bald Mountain – are undergoing major expansions to extend mining and have ongoing exploration programs.

“Our Nevada operations are an important part of our portfolio as they are located in one of the world’s best mining jurisdictions, and we continue to pursue opportunities to enhance our presence in the state,” said Samantha Sheffield, corporate communications manager at Kinross.

At Round Mountain in Nye County, the Phase W expansion project is progressing “well and is on budget,” Sheffield said, with initial Phase W ore expected to be encountered in mid-2019. Phase W is expected to extend mining by five years and increase life-of-mine production by 1.5 million ounces.

The Fraser Institute, a Canadian public policy think tank, ranked Nevada third worldwide in the latest edition of their yearly global rankings of mining jurisdictions in investment attractiveness, the highest of any U.S. state.

Overall, exploration activity in Nevada increased by 15 percent with 19,040 new claims and a three percent rise in gold production in the state in 2017, according to the article published in Investing News.

Still, sources said no place in the state has generated as much excitement among mining companies as Beatty did over the past year.

“There’s exploration going all over the state, but it’s not like five or six companies in one district competing against each other. … Right now Beatty is having its moment and it’s just a matter of how long that excitement will last, (because) it depends on results.”