Pan gold mine to produce for Nevada this year

Midway Gold has closed a share offering for aggregate gross proceeds of $25,000,430. It intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to fund the construction and working capital for the Pan gold project, Gold Rock development and permitting, and general corporate purposes. Pan is Midway’s first +1 Moz project under construction. It is a low-cost, open pit, heap leach operation. The property is located at the northern end of the Pancake mountain range in western White Pine County, Nevada, some 35 km southeast of Eureka, and 85 km west of Ely, Nevada.

 

Pan is a Carlin-style, epithermal, disseminated, sediment-hosted gold system. The gold mineralization occurs in elongate breccias along the Pan fault, and along sedimentary bedding near unit contacts. Host rocks are dissolution/collapse breccias in the Pilot Shale and, to a lesser extent, the Devils Gate Limestone. The resource outcrops at the surface and is entirely oxide mineralisation.

 

The near-surface deposit is ideally suited for open-pit mining. The pit would have zero pre-strip and a low 1.8:1 life of mine strip ratio. Grade distribution and metallurgical testing show that the ore can be processed by conventional heap leaching methods with an average estimated recovery of 75%. Pan will be mined from two separate open pits, North and South, for a total mine life of nine years. Ore from both pits will be processed on a central leach pad.

 

Gold Rock is the sister project to Pan at only 8 km away. It is expected to be a low-cost open pit, heap leach similar to Pan. There is significant potential for the resource to grow and exploration is ongoing. Gold Rock Production is Targeted for 2016.