The Gold Bar mine is located in the southern Roberts Mountains of the Battle Mountain-Eureka-Cortez gold trend in Eureka County, Central Nevada.
Historical production at Gold Bar includes 134,000 gold ounces obtained between 1991 and 1994 from Gold Pick and Gold Ridge, at an average mining grade of 2.5 grams per tonne (0.074 ounces per ton). The Gold Pick, Gold Ridge and Cabin Creek deposits of the property are included in McEwen Mining's plans of open pit operations and the Gold Bar South deposit is now in the process of being added to the mining plan.
25 miles southeast of the Gold Bar property is Waterton Global’s Ruby Hill mine and 25 miles north and northwest is the Nevada Gold Mines joint venture of Barrick and Newmont, with the Cortez-Goldrush cluster holding over 10 million gold ounces in reserves and 50 million gold ounces in past production and current resources.
The Gold Bar property is located on patented lands and public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Battle Mountain Field Office. Since 2013 McEwen Mining has been through an ongoing pursuit to build the Gold Bar mine. During this time, the Company has overcome many challenges involved in bringing a new mining project to fruition. A signed Record of Decision on the Final Environmental Impact Statement published by BLM in November 2017 marked the completion of the National Environmental Protection Act process. Gold Bar is the first new gold mine in Nevada to gain permit approval in several years.
After obtaining the permit approval in late 2017, a property-wide exploration program was started, with the objective to extend the life of the mine by expanding the mineral inventory surrounding the planned open pits and testing new targets on the property.
Exploration delivered encouraging results, through initial drilling focused on three areas: northwest of the planned Gold Pick open pit, northwest of the planned Gold Ridge open pit, and in-between Gold Pick and Gold Ridge. A new shallow oxide mineralization zone has been identified in Hole GB257, which returned 1.4 gpt gold over 16.8 m, starting at a depth of 9 m. Holes that encountered significant mineralization had a weighted average grade and thickness of 1 gpt gold over 15.2 m, comparable to the average grade of the deposit.
In February 2018 we announced an updated feasibility study for Gold Bar, prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Canadian National Instrument 43-101 “Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects”. Key changes to the implementation strategy of the Gold Bar mine, such as the addition of a crushing, conveying and agglomeration plant and changes in heap leach pad construction, were made with the goal of reducing overall project risk, while maintaining the highest capital efficiency. The resulting increase in capital costs over the previous estimate was offset by a 20% increase in total gold production.
Through the remainder of 2018, additional drilling and improved economic factors, such as higher gold recoveries and lower waste mining costs, continued to increase resources and reserves at Gold Bar - resources increased mostly in the Gold Pick and Gold Ridge areas and the 8% increase of reserves extended Gold Bar’s estimated mine life from 6.3 years to 7.4 years (see the Feb 21, 2019 press release for updated mineral resource and reserve estimates).
Acquired by McEwen Mining in 2016, Gold Bar South is a property that consists of 109 mining claims, located approximately 3.5 miles (5.5 kilometers) southeast of our Gold Bar mine, and that hosts a near surface oxide gold deposit. An infill and pit definition drilling program conducted in 2019 at Gold Bar South had 25% of the new drill intersections showing higher grades than the current resource average of 1 gpt gold. New mineralized structures were identified outside the existing resource, including notable gold intersections such as 6.66 gpt over 24 m, 2.13 gpt over 55 m and 2.21 gpt over 51.8 m (for more results see press releases from Aug 20, 2019 and Oct 15, 2019). Drilling has encountered an area between the NE and NW trending faults of higher-grade oxide mineralization that grades over 2 gpt gold and is currently 50 m wide, 50 m long and 50 m thick.
Following the 2019 drilling program, the Gold Bar South resource was upgraded to 63,000 ounces of gold at 1.1 gpt average grade in the Measured & Indicated category. There is upside potential to grow the resource and additional drilling is planned over the south extension, which remains open, and over the northern portion of the deposit, which has recently become fully accessible for drilling. For 2020 we are also working to incorporate the Gold Bar South satellite pit into the mine plan, since it provides an attractive opportunity to add a new ore source to the Gold Bar Mine as a near surface deposit located SE of the heap leach pad.
In 2019 Gold Bar had the first ingot poured in February and commercial production achieved in May. With ore grades reconciling with the reserve model and the mine's throughput continuing to increase, Gold Bar reached 30,700 gold ounces in its first year of production.
