Alta Gold announces lower year-end reserves

The gold reserves of NASDAQ-listed Alta Gold dropped to 778,000 oz. in 1995 from nearly 1 million oz. the year before.

Nevertheless, President Robert Pratt says “the [current] reserves establish a foundation for production and earnings for the next 10 years.” Additional reserves include 3.6 million oz. silver, 500 million lb. copper and 15 million lb. molybdenum.

The company’s largest gold reserve is found in the Olinghouse deposit in Washoe Cty., Nev. It contains 9.7 million tons of material grading 0.036 oz. gold per ton (equivalent to 347,595 contained ounces). The reserve, currently being drilled on 100-ft. centres, is but a small part of a larger gold district that is open in all directions.

Seven core holes were also drilled for metallurgical testing, and the company has committed US$3 million for further drilling, scheduled to begin in the next month.

At its Kinsley gold mine, which produces 50,000 oz. annually, reserves stand at 3.4 million tons grading 0.032 oz. gold (or 110,966 contained ounces). The potential to increase reserves at this deposit, situated in Elko Cty., Nev., is deemed excellent, owing to the discovery, announced in January, of a parallel gold system at Robinson Gulch.

In New Mexico, Alta owns the Copper Flat porphyry copper-moly deposit, for which an environmental impact statement has been completed. Site construction is to begin before year-end.

Copper Flat contains 500 million lb. copper and 15 million lb. moly, plus significant gold and silver values.

In eastern Nevada, Alta controls the Griffon, a smaller deposit believed to contain 68,000 oz. gold.