The Chandalar project is the company’s flagship exploration and development property, and a recent scoping study commissioned by the company confirmed the economic viability of production on the placer gravels overlying the hard rock mineralization present throughout the property.
The study concludes gold-bearing gravels contain a minimum of 231,000 ounces of recoverable gold that could be extracted at a cash cost of $442 per ounce. The gravel contains about 0.025 ounces of gold per cubic yard – that is much higher grade than the big Fort Knox gold mine near Fairbanks.
Little Squaw management believes the deposit can be substantially expanded through additional drilling and that an increase in its size would significantly increase profitable mine life and lower unit costs. Alaska has a streamlined permitting process for placer mines that could allow for very rapid development of the orebody.
Richard Walters, President of the Company, said, “It is my opinion that we have discovered a commercially viable, industrial-scale alluvial gold deposit that is geologically unique to Alaska but is similar to the big alluvial gold deposits being mined in neighboring Siberia.”
Robert Pate, Chief Operating Officer of the Company, confirmed, “We have defined more than 8 million cubic yards of near-surface pay gravels where we can gain the economies of scale in a surface bulk-mining operation. This amount could double as drilling progresses.”
Also underway presently is drilling on a property the company has leased in Mexico.
The Marisol gold property located near the U.S. border south of Tucson in the State of Sonora, Mexico. The property exhibits discovery potential for “Carlin-type,”
The favorable geological environments in Mexico, and Sonora State, in particular, provide many precious-metals exploration opportunities. Marisol lies in the Cucurpe Mining District where some 2 million ounces of gold have been produced primarily from epithermal-type deposits. Current gold resources for the district are now thought to exceed 3 million ounces.
"Marisol is another example of our commitment to building value for our investors by focusing on highly prospective gold exploration assets concurrently with our diversification across politically supportive jurisdictions in the Americas," said Little Squaw President, Richard Walters. "Specifically, Mexico combines favorable geology with stable political, social, and economic factors. The ability to work year-round in Mexico will counterbalance the seasonal campaigns on our Alaska property," he added.
In Nevada, Little Squaw’s Broken Hills West property is located near Gabbs and the Paradise Peak gold mine in the Walker Lane Trend. Early stage exploration is progressing and the Company is planning a geophysical survey prior to drilling.
Broken Hills was acquired from a private prospector, and covers 440 acres.
Meanwhile, the company is gearing up for an aggressive exploration program on its 100% owned Pedra de Fogo project in Brazil.
Little Squaw acquired the Pedra de Fogo (Rock of Fire) gold property in Goias State, southeastern Brazil in March 2007. The property covers approximately 115 square kilometers of highly prospective geologic terrain within the Crixas Greenstone Belt. The Crixas Greenstone Belt has yielded over 3 million ounces of gold. Located near the town of Reisopolis, the property access is excellent with roads passing through most areas of interests.
Little Squaw has confirmed stream-sediment gold anomalies to occur tightly clustered within a 32–square-
Little Squaw intends to undertake an aggressive exploration program of detailed mapping, sampling, and geophysics to specifically identify the source(s) of the stream geochemical gold anomalies, which are believed to be concealed by the red lateritic soils of the subtropical terrain.
Pedra de Fogo gold is an early stage exploration property having an attractive combination of highly prospective geology and geochemistry, a solid technical database, and excellent access located in an established and politically friendly mining region.
