Lahontan Gold Corp. (TSX.V: LG) (OTCQB: LGCXF) has reported initial results from its 2026 Sonic core drilling program at the Santa Fe Mine Project, with drilling confirming significant gold and silver mineralization in a historic 'low-grade' stockpile. The grades substantially exceed the material's original classification, suggesting the stockpile may be suitable for low-cost future reprocessing.
The stockpile, adjacent to Heap Leach Pad Two, contains readily accessible material. Cyanide-extractable gold assays averaging more than 30% indicate favorable heap-leach characteristics, according to the company. The nearly 100-hole Sonic drilling program has now concluded across the site's four historic heap leach pads, with results from six additional holes in the low-grade stockpile expected shortly.
The program is designed to define resources remaining in historic heap leach pads and stockpiles that could provide a lower-cost source of future processing material as the company advances its goal of restarting production at the Santa Fe Mine in 2027. For the full press release, visit https://ibn.fm/a0odu.
Lahontan Gold Corp. is a Canadian mine development and mineral exploration company that holds, through its US subsidiaries, four top-tier gold and silver exploration properties in the Walker Lane of mining friendly Nevada. Lahontan's flagship property, the 26.4 km2 Santa Fe Mine project, had past production of 359,202 ounces of gold and 702,067 ounces of silver between 1988 and 1995 from open pit mines utilizing heap-leach processing.
The Santa Fe Mine has a Canadian National Instrument 43-101 compliant Indicated Mineral Resource of 1,539,000 oz Au Eq (48,393,000 tonnes grading 0.92 g/t Au and 7.18 g/t Ag, together grading 0.99 g/t Au Eq) and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 411,000 oz Au Eq (16,760,000 tonnes grading 0.74 g/t Au and 3.25 g/t Ag, together grading 0.76 g/t Au Eq), all pit constrained (Au Eq is inclusive of recovery, please see Santa Fe Project Technical Report and note below*). The Company plans to continue advancing the Santa Fe Mine project towards production, update the Santa Fe Preliminary Economic Assessment, and drill test its satellite West Santa Fe project during 2025.
The technical content of this news release and the Company's technical disclosure has been reviewed and approved by Michael Lindholm, CPG, Independent Consulting Geologist to Lahontan Gold Corp., who is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101. For more information, please visit the company's website: www.lahontangoldcorp.com.
Please see the 'Preliminary Economic Assessment, NI 43-101 Technical Report, Santa Fe Project', Authors: Kenji Umeno, P. Eng., Thomas Dyer, PE, Kyle Murphy, PE, Trevor Rabb, P. Geo, Darcy Baker, PhD, P. Geo., and John M. Young, SME-RM; Effective Date: December 10, 2024, Report Date: January 24, 2025. The Technical Report is available on the Company's website and SEDAR+. Mineral resources are reported using a cut-off grade of 0.15 g/t AuEq for oxide resources and 0.60 g/t AuEq for non-oxide resources. AuEq for the purpose of cut-off grade and reporting the Mineral Resources is based on the following assumptions gold price of US$1,950/oz gold, silver price of US$23.50/oz silver, and oxide gold recoveries ranging from 28% to 79%, oxide silver recoveries ranging from 8% to 30%, and non-oxide gold and silver recoveries of 71%.
