Dateline (ASX:DTR) walks in footsteps of giants at California Colosseum

Dateline Resources has sent a second drill rig on the trail of more high-grade Californian gold at the massive previously abandoned Colosseum gold mine in the wake of some spectacular intercepts in the Mojave Desert.

An 813,000-ounce JORC resource is already in place, and Dateline is looking towards expansion after bringing in highlight intercepts of up to 70.1 metres at 6.53 grams per tonne gold alongside significant levels of silver.

The Colosseum mill was active 24/7 during its heyday and over US$100 million worth of gold and silver was extracted before production ceased in 1992.

Previous owners Barrick Gold and BP Minerals estimated only 344 thousand of 1.1 million ounces had been mined but as majors deal less with the risk and more of the upside of exploration, Barrick opted to sell to Dateline which made the Colosseum acquisition with a view towards significantly expanding its resource base.

“By correlating the relationship between gold and a range of trace elements and alteration, we can start to measure each drillhole’s proximity to the higher grade gold zones and continuity in that zone,” Dateline Managing Director Stephen Baghdadi said.

“The RC rig will get to the mineralised zone faster than the core rig and will focus on better defining the high-grade zone. The pace at which the RC rig can drill means we now expect more results to be available within a shorter time frame.”

The ore body mined at Colosseum notably consists of two small mineralised breccia pipes extending to over 1500-feet deep, which Dateline believes may hold the potential to join at depth and yield a significantly greater resource.

And Dateline experts have also confirmed the rock units surrounding those breccia pipes are genetically related to the Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine – the highest graded global mine, lying a scant 10 kilometres from Colosseum.

Both elevated gold and rare earth values were intersected in the granite near the end of starring drill hole CM23-14 which is now being analysed alongside 10 per cent of all recent drill samples to create a 3D model of metal zoning and better lock in targets for the next round.