Description

Location: CANCELLED

Contact: GSN@GSNV.ORG

This meeting has been cancelled due to concerns for our members with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaker: Fred Holabird

Title: “Nome Offshore Gold Deposit May Represent the Future of Mining”

 Drinks @ 6:00 pm; Dinner @ 6:30 pm; Talk @ 7:30 pm

Location: Great Basin’s Taps & Tanks, 1155 So. Rock Blvd., Reno, Nevada

Dinner Cost: $30.00 per person.

NOTE: You will be invoiced $30 if you do not cancel your reservation by Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Payment Options:

  • Click Here to Prepay
  • Email Office ( gsn@gsnv.org) to RSVP and pay at the door

Reservations are due by 5 p.m. on TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020!!!

GREAT NEWS!!  Taps & Tanks has upgraded the AV configuration and ironed out some of the issues we have had in past meetings.   Thank you for your patience.


ABSTRACT:
Nome Offshore Gold Deposit May Represent the Future of Mining
Fred N. Holabird, SME
Offshore placer gold deposits at Nome, Alaska may represent a new frontier for future exploration and mining of previously unknown gold deposits. Operations in offshore marine mining have significant technological challenges; however, professional marine mining operators at Nome are using new techniques and technology to exploit this new world of marine mining.
At Nome, Placer Marine Mining Co. (PMMC) owns mineral rights to 16,579 acres of offshore gold leases, representing approximately 65% of the total offshore gold leases let to date by the State of Alaska. These properties range from depths of 25 feet to ~70 feet covering an area approximately three miles wide by ten miles long.   Here, near shore gold leases and areas in the public domain are operated by small miners, such as those seen on “Bearing Sea Gold.”
Prior leaseholder WestGold mined several small sections of the leases from 1987-1990 totaling about 550 acres using the BIMA bucket-line dredge.  Created in Singapore in 1978-1979 to mine tin ore from the seas off Indonesia, the dredge was not constructed to withstand Alaska waters and broke down permanently after four seasons.  Reports of recovered gold approximate 188,000 ounces.
Anglo Ashanti and WestGold spent approximately $25 million evaluating portions of the property—with more than 3,500 drill holes— developing resources on approximately 22% of the entire property.  Exploration efforts centered on understanding a complex geologic past involving transgressive and regressive erosional sequences emplaced over the top of a long-term eroding gold source. This, in turn, was covered subsequently by at least two periods of glaciation.
Several large blocks were chosen to further investigate geologic complexities and ore controls. More detailed exploration and development work inside these blocks helped bring understanding to ore controls and grades, delineating potentially minable sections. Development drilling delineated numerous high-grade zones with approximately 200,000 ounces of drill proven resource. It also indicated an immediate target of 1,000,000 ounces within the target zones and an on-property global target of 6 million ounces.
Marine mining at Nome can only take place when the ice shield is gone—approximately June 1 to November 15. During that period, the turbidity is very high and the crab and fish are not in this part of the Bearing Sea. Normal environmental restrictions apply; however, permit time is short—less than one year. A small operation can be had for as little as $8 million.  The smallest current operator on these leases operates an underwater ROV mining device with an 18 inch piping system in 60 feet of water. This operation mines at a rate of about 20 cubic yards per hour over about three months and has consistently produced about $5 million per year—about four times the best operator on the Bearing Sea Gold program.
PMMC is seeking mining partners who understand bulk marine aggregate mining concepts with gold as a byproduct.  This presentation will be the first time exploration data has been released publicly.

Details

03/20/2020 18:00:0003/20/2020 21:00:00America/Los_AngelesCANCELLED! GSN Membership Meeting in Reno, March 20, 2020This meeting has been cancelled due to concerns for our members with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaker: Fred Holabird

Title: “Nome Offshore Gold Deposit May Represent the Future of Mining”

 Drinks @ 6:00 pm; Dinner @ 6:30 pm; Talk @ 7:30 pm

Location: Great Basin’s Taps & Tanks, 1155 So. Rock Blvd., Reno, Nevada

Dinner Cost: $30.00 per person.

NOTE: You will be invoiced $30 if you do not cancel your reservation by Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Payment Options:
  • Click Here to Prepay
  • Email Office ( gsn@gsnv.org) to RSVP and pay at the door

Reservations are due by 5 p.m. on TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2020!!!

GREAT NEWS!!  Taps & Tanks has upgraded the AV configuration and ironed out some of the issues we have had in past meetings.   Thank you for your patience.


ABSTRACT:
Nome Offshore Gold Deposit May Represent the Future of Mining
Fred N. Holabird, SME
Offshore placer gold deposits at Nome, Alaska may represent a new frontier for future exploration and mining of previously unknown gold deposits. Operations in offshore marine mining have significant technological challenges; however, professional marine mining operators at Nome are using new techniques and technology to exploit this new world of marine mining.
At Nome, Placer Marine Mining Co. (PMMC) owns mineral rights to 16,579 acres of offshore gold leases, representing approximately 65% of the total offshore gold leases let to date by the State of Alaska. These properties range from depths of 25 feet to ~70 feet covering an area approximately three miles wide by ten miles long.   Here, near shore gold leases and areas in the public domain are operated by small miners, such as those seen on “Bearing Sea Gold.”
Prior leaseholder WestGold mined several small sections of the leases from 1987-1990 totaling about 550 acres using the BIMA bucket-line dredge.  Created in Singapore in 1978-1979 to mine tin ore from the seas off Indonesia, the dredge was not constructed to withstand Alaska waters and broke down permanently after four seasons.  Reports of recovered gold approximate 188,000 ounces.
Anglo Ashanti and WestGold spent approximately $25 million evaluating portions of the property—with more than 3,500 drill holes— developing resources on approximately 22% of the entire property.  Exploration efforts centered on understanding a complex geologic past involving transgressive and regressive erosional sequences emplaced over the top of a long-term eroding gold source. This, in turn, was covered subsequently by at least two periods of glaciation.
Several large blocks were chosen to further investigate geologic complexities and ore controls. More detailed exploration and development work inside these blocks helped bring understanding to ore controls and grades, delineating potentially minable sections. Development drilling delineated numerous high-grade zones with approximately 200,000 ounces of drill proven resource. It also indicated an immediate target of 1,000,000 ounces within the target zones and an on-property global target of 6 million ounces.
Marine mining at Nome can only take place when the ice shield is gone—approximately June 1 to November 15. During that period, the turbidity is very high and the crab and fish are not in this part of the Bearing Sea. Normal environmental restrictions apply; however, permit time is short—less than one year. A small operation can be had for as little as $8 million.  The smallest current operator on these leases operates an underwater ROV mining device with an 18 inch piping system in 60 feet of water. This operation mines at a rate of about 20 cubic yards per hour over about three months and has consistently produced about $5 million per year—about four times the best operator on the Bearing Sea Gold program.
PMMC is seeking mining partners who understand bulk marine aggregate mining concepts with gold as a byproduct.  This presentation will be the first time exploration data has been released publicly.
Reno, NV
Event StartsEvent Ends
03/20/202003/20/2020
All Day Event
6:00pm9:00pm