Provenance Gold has received its drilling permit from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the company’s Eldorado gold project in Malheur County, eastern Oregon.
The company is now waiting for final approval from the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) in Oregon, which it expects very soon. Pending approval, the company has an agreement with a drilling company to initiate its first drilling program on the property which Provenance views as one of its two premier projects. The program is currently expected to begin in September.
Historic work on the property includes 242 drill holes for 22,000 meters of drilling. Billiton was the first company that contracted a professional resource study on the Eldorado drilling. Pincock, Allen and Holt (1998) estimated the Eldorado property contained 38,416,000 tons averaging 0.68 g/t for 764,000 ounces of gold (at a 0.292 g/t cutoff grade) and encompassed a limited portion of the known mineralization. Provenance plans to conduct confirmation drilling to begin to establish a potential qualified mineral inventory, and metallurgical studies to confirm historic reports of excellent gold recoveries in both oxidized and unoxidized rock.
“We have all been waiting impatiently for final approvals, and working extremely diligently this year to this point, so we can begin validating and expanding Eldorado,” chairman Rauno Perttu said.
“This is an exciting time for Provenance. I am confident we have two ‘company-makers’ in Eldorado and White Rock.”