Blackrock Gold is on the hunt for high grade gold and silver in Nevada

Nevada is consistently ranked as a premier mining jurisdiction Tonopah is the second largest silver district in the 'silver state' If Nevada was a country, it would be the sixth largest gold producer in the world What Blackrock Gold Corp does:  Blackrock Gold Corp (CVE:BRC) is on the hunt for high-grade gold and silver in mining-friendly Nevada in the USA. The junior wants to make an economic discovery along the established Northern Nevada rift in north-central Nevada, and the Walker Lane trend in the west of the state. Its 100% owned Silver Cloud project, which has multi-million ounce gold potential, consists of 572 claims covering 45 square kilometres and is adjacent to Hecla Mining's (NYSE:HL) Hollister mine which in 2018 generated nearly 33,000 ounces of the yellow metal and over 172,000 ounces of silver. In April, 2020, Blackrock completed a US$3 million deal with Ely Gold Royalties Inc giving it a four-year purchase option for the brownfield Tonopah West project in the Walker Lane belt. It means the firm now controls the largest claims package in the area and has a major foothold in the Tonopah district, which has produced over 174 million ounces of silver and 1.8 million ounces of gold. Tonopah West consists of 98 patented and 17 unpatented lode mining claims covering around 4.5 square kilometres or 1,100 acres of land. How is it doing: In November this year, Blackrock Gold started drilling its Silver Cloud project, saying it will sink up to 3,500 metres (m) in 14 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes across four distinct target areas, with most focused on the newly-delineated, yet untested, NE Veins target. The drilling is expected to be completed by mid-December, although it will be dependent on the weather. Notably, a month earlier, Blackrock revealed it was mulling plans to spin out Silver Cloud into a separate public company to unlock its value. It said Blackrock’s investors would stand to own shares in two public companies in the same proportions that are on two clear paths. Meanwhile, as of October 8 this year, Blackrock had completed nearly 14,000m in 28 holes of maiden drilling at its Tonopah West project in Nevada, the program having been expanded to 30,000m. Assays for 16 holes were released, with 14 showing significant and high-grade intercepts, ranging from 1.5m to 29m in thickness, with grades from 300 grams per ton (g/t) silver-equivalent (AgEq) to 4,643 AgEq. In November, the group also said it had encountered "multiple high-grade gold and silver core intercepts" at the Victor Target at Tonopah West, including 19 g/t gold and 1,634 g/t silver over 0.9m. The Victor target is a multi-vein gold and silver zone, drill-defined within an area 210m by 150m, remaining open to the west and down dip, and on December 18, the company said recent intercepts from the eastern border of Tonopah West showed that the Victor vein target extends the project`s strike length 480 metres to the east. In December, Blackrock said drilling on the Denver, Paymaster and Bermuda (DPB) target at Tonopah West had returned 3m at 10.5 g/t gold and 1,188 g/t silver (2,238 g/t silver equivalent) along the Merton vein. The company has started a resource definition program on the DPB target with the goal of delivering an initial resource by the end of 2021. Inflection points: More drill results More deals Precious metal moves What the boss says:  Blackrock Gold chief executive Andrew Pollard, speaking about drill results from the Denver, Paymaster and Bermuda (DPB) target at Tonopah West in December, said: "This is shaping up to be something that really has some serious legs and we're going to be going all out on this next year, that's for sure."  He added: "We got multiple rigs turning down at Tonopah and we're drilling our other project Silver Cloud this year so we're expecting a plethora of stuff to come in."      Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com