Lahontan Gold (TSX.V: LG) (OTCQB: LGCXF) plans to drill test the historic Santa Fe East Waste Rock Storage Facility at its flagship Santa Fe Mine Project in Nevada's Walker Lane, the company announced. The proposed program will consist of up to 100 reverse-circulation drill holes averaging approximately 35 meters in depth, targeting an estimated 9 million tonnes of waste rock generated during mining operations between 1988 and 1992.
The significance for investors lies in what that material might contain. With a historic mining cutoff grade of approximately 0.55 grams per tonne gold, the company believes material previously classified as waste may contain recoverable gold and silver mineralization suitable for heap leach processing. The drill program will evaluate the distribution, tonnage and precious metal grades of the stored material to assess its potential contribution to future production.
Lahontan noted that its recently announced preliminary economic assessment already includes moving the Santa Fe East WRSF to access underlying gold and silver resources. Recovering precious metals from this material could provide an additional source of production early in the mine life and potentially improve the economics of the Santa Fe development plan. That timing matters: early-stage output can help offset capital costs before higher-grade ore is fully accessed, a factor that can shift project economics materially.
The broader context is a project with a substantial production history. Lahontan's flagship property, the 26.4 square kilometer Santa Fe Mine project, had past production of 359,202 ounces of gold and 702,067 ounces of silver between 1988 and 1995 from open pit mines utilizing heap-leach processing. The Santa Fe Mine has a Canadian National Instrument 43-101 compliant Indicated Mineral Resource of 1,539,000 oz Au Eq and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 411,000 oz Au Eq, all pit constrained. The company plans to continue advancing the project towards production, update the Santa Fe Preliminary Economic Assessment, and drill test its satellite West Santa Fe project during 2025.
For readers tracking the junior mining sector, the waste-rock concept is a reminder that historic operations often left value behind when metal prices and cutoff grades differed from today's assumptions. If the drilling confirms sufficient grade and tonnage, the program could convert a legacy liability into a feedstock stream, though the company has not yet reported assay results and the evaluation remains at the planning stage. The technical content of the disclosure was reviewed and approved by Michael Lindholm, CPG, Independent Consulting Geologist to Lahontan Gold Corp., who is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101. More information is available at www.lahontangoldcorp.com, and the full press release can be viewed at https://ibn.fm/i8rBZ. The latest news and updates relating to LGCXF are available in the company's newsroom at http://ibn.fm/LGCXF.
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