Nelson Resources (ASX:NES) commences rehabilitation at Great Western Mine within Gold Point Project

Nelson Resources has commenced underground rehabilitation at the historic Great Western Mine within its Gold Point Gold Silver Project in Nevada, USA.

The work represents the second historic mine to be advanced under the company’s staged underground rehabilitation and exploration strategy, following the successful rehabilitation of the upper levels of the Orleans Mine and the commencement of maiden underground drilling.

Highlights

• Underground rehabilitation has commenced at the historic Great Western Mine.
• Great Western is the second historic mine to be advanced under Nelson’s staged underground rehabilitation and exploration strategy.
• Recent surface work around the Great Western and Grand Central area returned rock chip results including 32.2g/t Au and 28.4g/t Ag, 31.7g/t Au and 100g/t Ag, 18.6g/t Au and 61.5g/t Ag, and 12.25g/t Au and 244g/t Ag.
• The Gold Point Project includes more than 5km of underground workings and more than 20 additional shafts across five historic mines.
• At least 75,000oz of gold was reportedly produced at grades of 20 to 30g/t Au from the district’s historic workings.

Rehabilitation at Great Western forms part of Nelson’s staged plan to progressively reopen priority underground access points across the Gold Point Project.

The program follows the same workflow established at Orleans, where rehabilitation restored access to key underground positions, enabled drill platforms to be established and provided the company with a framework for advancing other historic mine areas at Gold Point.

The company stated that Great Western is the next priority access area within its broader underground exploration strategy.

Nelson’s objective is to progressively rehabilitate priority access points, complete underground mapping and sampling, integrate survey data into its mine scale 3D model and identify drill ready targets from underground positions.

The company stated that recent surface sampling results supported its decision to prioritise rehabilitation at Great Western.

Historical records indicate that silver production commenced at Great Western Mine in 1907, while the Orleans Mine was discovered in 1908 and later became the district’s primary gold silver producer.

Nelson Non Executive Chairman Gernot Abl said the company was applying the same approach used at Orleans to the Great Western Mine.

“Commencing rehabilitation at Great Western is another important step in Nelson’s strategy to unlock the broader Gold Point underground network.”

The rehabilitation program is expected to include stabilising priority underground access, assessing ground conditions and safe working areas, and undertaking geological, structural and survey work where access permits.

Observations and sampling results will be integrated into Nelson’s 3D geological model to define priority targets for future underground drill testing.

Nelson stated that the Gold Point Project includes more than 5km of underground workings across five historic mines, supporting an exploration strategy that combines underground mapping, sampling, LiDAR, geophysics and drill targeting with broader district scale surface exploration.

The announcement states that underground positions allow drill collars to be located closer to the target than surface locations and enable holes to be drilled from more favourable positions relative to vein geometry.

Drill planning can be guided by underground mapping, recent chip sampling, historic stope positions and survey information.

The company expects reduced drill metres and improved access to materially lower costs compared with a surface-only program, while drilling from existing underground workings minimises surface access and drill pad requirements.

Work at the Great Western Mine is expected to proceed alongside ongoing exploration and drilling activities at Orleans, with the company expecting the combined datasets from both mines to progressively improve its understanding of the broader Gold Point vein system and support future drill targeting across the district.

Near term activities are focused on continuing rehabilitation and stabilisation of priority underground areas, completing LiDAR and underground geological and structural mapping, integrating Great Western data with the Orleans underground model, assessing potential underground drilling positions and developing drill platforms in optimal sites adjacent to historic stope positions, and ranking Great Western targets for future drill testing.

Nelson has executed an agreement to earn up to a 90% interest in the Gold Point Project, which the company stated includes historically mined high grade gold silver veins, newly recognised intrusion hosted Gold Silver mineralisation, skarn style Au Ag Cu W mineralisation and broader Cu Mo Au porphyry potential.

The company also stated that, for the first time in more than 140 years, the historic district has been consolidated under a single owner, enabling Nelson to pursue a unified, camp scale exploration approach across the broader Gold Point system.

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