Summit Minerals acquires historic high-grade mine

Summit Minerals (ASX: SUM) has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the historic high-grade polymetallic Keystone mine in Nevada, US.

This forms part of the Keystone project, located within the large-scale skarn district and hosting significant historic and current production of silver, gold, lead, zinc, molybdenum and tungsten.

The site has official historic records dating back to 1937, all of which indicate the production of 36,000oz silver and 64oz gold, averaging 32.2oz/t silver, .038 oz/t gold (909 g/t silver, 2.29 g/t gold).

Further historic reports highlight tungsten trioxide grades ranging from .5% to 2.25% recorded in drill core.

Summit Minerals managing director Matthew Cobb comments on the acquisition.

“I am incredibly excited by the acquisition of Keystone,” he said

“This project provides a highly prospective entry point into an exciting, emerging precious and critical metals trend within the tier-one, well-established and mining-friendly state of Nevada.”

The regional mineralisation trend is host to numerous precious, base and critical metals deposits including the Rochester mine (host to 9.6moz gold and 508.7moz silver) and the Springer (Sutton) mine, which produced 2.9mt of scheelite-bearing ore at an average grade of .451% tungsten trioxide between1914 and 1982.

There are also numerous other low-sulphidation epithermal, hot-spring, and skarn deposits, including Florida, Fondaway, Panther and Relief Canyon projects.

“The combination of high-grade silver and high-grade tungsten mineralisation is a fantastic complement to Summit’s existing portfolio and positions the company well for ‘future metals’ focused success,” Dr Cobb said.

“Our immediate focus will be on a preliminary fieldwork campaign to validate the historic data and establish the development pathway for the coming year.

“I look forward to keeping our shareholders updated.”