Newmont (NYSE: NEM, TSX: NGT, ASX: NEM) said on Thursday that it is walking away from the Appaloosa project in Nevada held by Canadian junior Gunpoint Exploration (TSXV: GUN). A notice to terminate an option and earn-in agreement signed in September 2022 between Gunpoint and Newcrest Mining, now part of Newmont, has been issued.
Appaloosa is a 7-km-long mineralized structural zone situated within Gunpoint’s flagship Talapoosa gold-silver property in central Nevada. The entire land package at Talapoosa totals 60.17 square kilometres, with history of exploration dating back to the late 1970s. Gunpoint took over the project in 2010.
Under the prior arrangement, Newcrest had the right to acquire, in multiple stages, up to a 75% interest in Appaloosa for cumulative exploration and development expenditures of $35 million, cash payments totaling $5 million to Gunpoint, and completing a minimum indicated resource estimate of 1.0 million gold ounces.
For the past 18 months, the Australian miner has conducted a property-wide, reconnaissance exploration program on Appaloosa that confirmed the existence of a large, mineralized hydrothermal gold-bearing system.
Surface exploration and initial drilling in two areas identified a large potential hydrothermal cell related to and peripheral to the Talapoosa deposit, while reconnaissance work undertaken on Talapoosa indicated potential extensions of the existing deposit in multiple directions.
Newcrest also recently discovered an unexplored vein trend with a 450-metre strike length with rock chip samples up to 4 g/t gold.
Following Newmont’s termination, Gunpoint will now look to advance the project alone. With this new data, it plans to focus on follow-up exploration of the newly identified Talapoosa targets and prioritize drilling to expand the known deposit and test the new vein systems.
Prior to Newcrest’s involvement, the Talapoosa property was optioned to Timberline Resources between 2015-2018. During that period, Timberline completed a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on the project, indicating an after-tax net present value of $136 million (5% discount rate) and an internal rate of return of 38.8%. The capital payback was 3.1 years.
The PEA envisioned an open-pit mining operation with an 11-year life, producing on average 55,000 oz. of gold and 679,000 oz. of silver per year.
Forming the basis of the study was a revised, NI 43-101-compliant mineral resource estimate issued in 2013. The MRE had measured and indicated resources of 1.0 million gold ounces and 13.6 million silver ounces contained within 31.3 million tonnes grading 1.11 g/t gold and 14.97 g/t silver. There is also 11.2 million tonnes inferred grading 0.72 g/t gold and 6.65 g/t silver.
