PR from Wits Basin
Wits Basin Receives Archival Mine Maps and Results Show High-Grade Gold Assays at Depth in the Bates-Hunter Gold Mine
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2005 7:07 AM
- BusinessWire
MINNEAPOLIS, Nov 11, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Wits Basin Precious Minerals Inc. (WITM) has received additional information being assembled by our consulting geologist Brian Alers. Mr. Alers reports, "Published and unpublished historic maps of the Bates-Hunter Gold Mine (located in Central City, Colorado) have been compiled into a longitudinal vein section which corroborates historic high-grade gold assays reported by E. M. Jones (1939)."
Information discovered so far includes 12 high-grade assays ranging from 1.04 oz per ton to 8.60 oz per ton. These types of grades would be consistent with a mine of this size, which produced approximately 750,000 oz of gold during its years of operations.
Continued searching is uncovering additional historical data about the workings of the Bates-Hunter and adjacent mines, which is being added to our database. A more complete compilation of the known vein structures is being constructed which allows for improved re-interpretation of the veins and their junctures and in particular the unexplored gaps between the known veins and what possibly could have been overlooked for decades. Shaft dewatering continues downward, exposing successively lower levels. This will allow the Company access for mapping and sampling the exposed historical workings and develop a diamond drilling program over the coming weeks, to test for unmined areas of known veins at depth as well as undiscovered high-grade lenses between known veins.
Vance White, CEO, states, "Recent progress has allowed us to better understand the magnitude of the water we are dealing with, as the dewatering process continues. It also provides us with specific targeted areas within and adjacent to the existing workings where we can concentrate our resources to define mineralization as shaft rehabilitation continues. Currently, the shaft has been dewatered to about the third level and we will be dewatering the drifts and stopes at this level in order to drill test the hanging and footwalls."
The Company is investigating the addition of a second shift to complete the rehabilitation quicker and advance the timeline for core drilling and future mining operations.
About Wits Basin Precious Minerals Inc.
We are a minerals exploration and development company holding interests in four exploration projects and currently do not claim to have any mineral reserves on any project. Our common stock trades on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board under the symbol "WITM." To find out more about Wits Basin Precious Minerals Inc. (WITM) , visit our website at www.witsbasin.com.
