Exploration company Great Western Mining Corporation has poured first gold and silver on its Mineral Jackpot property in Mineral County, in the US state of Nevada.
The company also produced a doré bar using material from test spoil heaps on the property.
The exploration firm said that the success of the trial proved the concept of being able to extract gold and silver from up to 12,000t of material available from 38 spoil heaps on Mineral Jackpot.
Great Western chairman Brian Hall said: “Pouring first gold and silver is a significant event for your company and we are very pleased to have met our stated objective for 2020.
“With the knowledge we have gained from this pilot exercise, which is still ongoing, and with first results from laboratory analysis due this month, we will be able to plan for commercial exploitation of precious metals as well as commence a new drill programme. We are well funded for our current requirements.”
The operation was carried out at a Mineral County facility where an initial load of about four tonnes of material was crushed and was processed through a local laboratory.
Simultaneously, analysis of a consignment of the same material was being treated and analysed in a laboratory in the UK.
This analysis is to find out the optimum method for producing precious metals on a sustainable commercial basis.
Great Western’s drilling targets for this year were planned for the Rock House group and the Olympic Gold project.
