Pinnacle Minerals Limited (ASX: PIM) ('Pinnacle' or 'the Company') is pleased to announce the commencement of the initial mine restart exploration program at its flagship Thunder Mountain Gold and Antimony Project in Valley County, Idaho, USA.
The Thunder Mountain claims cover approximately 368 hectares (3.68 km-2) and encompass a historically productive gold and silver district with extensive historic workings.
The Thunder Mountain Project lies within 8 kilometres of Perpetua Resources Inc.'s (NASDAQ: PPTA; AUD $4 billion market capitalisation) Stibnite Project, sharing similar structural settings, host rocks, alteration styles, and mineralisation characteristics.
Pinnacle's Executive Chairman, William Witham, commented: 'Our work at Thunder Mountain represents a genuine opportunity to bring historic U.S gold and silver mines back to life using modern exploration and technology. So far, this is an excellent result from our restart study at the Project, and it marks an important milestone as Pinnacle transitions into an active explorer across its growing U.S. critical minerals portfolio. 'The verification of historical workings and confirmation of mineralisation within the project area reinforce the quality of the asset and highlight its strong potential. We look forward to advancing exploration to define highpriority drill targets and deliver value for shareholder
Lightning Peak Open Pit Mine Restart The Lightning Peak open pit is located approximately 1.2 km southeast of the Sunnyside Mine. It was developed as part of Coeur d'Alene's Sunnyside operation, where ore was hosted in argillized lapilli tuff and silicified breccias interpreted as volcanic mudflow (lahar) deposits. In 1989, the operation produced 17,315 ounces of gold and 22,744 ounces of silver from 583,751 tons of ore.-2 In 1990, activity focused on the Lightning Peak pit, with estimated production of 25,000 ounces of gold and 30,000 ounces of silver. The proposed pit was expected to yield approximately one million tons of ore containing an estimated reserve of 70,000 ounces of gold, with grades ranging from 0.07 to 1.0 ounces per ton.
Regional Exploration Targeting Prospectivity
The Thunder Mountain Caldera (or Cauldron Complex) is geologically situated within the Eocene-aged Challis Volcanic Field, a region dominated by thick sequences of rhyolitic ash-flow tuffs and volcaniclastic sediments. It consists of predominantly felsic volcanic, pyroclastic and epiclastic rocks that had erupted and deposited in subaerial and lacustrine environments during Eocene time (51 to 43 Ma). It contains hot-spring gold-silver deposits of the Thunder Mountain district, and it probably is related to hot-spring mercury deposits, hosted in Proterozoic metasedimentary rocks near the western margin of the volcanic field. Structurally, the district is defined by a series of fault-bounded grabens that acted as fluid conduits, enabling mineralisation to move through the volcanic pile. The resulting gold-silver mineralization is of lowsulphidation epithermal type, hosted mainly in silicified breccias and tuffs, and is believed to have been driven by shallow, late-stage granite-porphyry intrusions that supplied both heat and mineralizing fluids. 3. 3. Economic Geology (Gillerman et al., 2024): Modern SEM/EDS constrained paragenesis at Yellow Pine-stibnite post-dates scheelite, with gold dominantly in arsenian pyrite (zones to 10 wt % As)
In the Thunder Mountain cauldron complex, gold-silver deposits and soil geochemical anomalies for arsenic, antimony, and mercury correspond to felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks that contain chalcedonic silica, minor adularia, and abundant clay (illite and montmorillonite). These hydrothermal products are localized along steeply dipping faults and fractures, and gently dipping layers of volcaniclastic rocks. As there has been virtually no exploration work done for over 25 years in the area, modern geophysical and geochemical techniques will be employed to explore for gold and silver over the claims.
About Pinnacle Minerals
Pinnacle Minerals Ltd (ASX: PIM) is a technology minerals exploration company focused on creating shareholder value through the discovery and development of high-quality battery and critical minerals projects in the United States, Canada, Western Australia, and South Australia. The Company's U.S. projects are located in one of North America's most prospective critical minerals regions, near Perpetua Resources' world-class Stibnite Gold-Antimony Project. Pinnacle also holds assets in James Bay, Quebec, proximal to the Adina Lithium Project (ASX: WR1), and in Australia, the Company's exploration assets are prospective for rare earth elements (SA) and heavy mineral sands (WA
Contact:
William Witham
Email: admin@pinnacleminerals.com.au
Tel: +61 417 097 172
Forward Looking Statements
This announcement contains 'forward-looking information' that is based on the Company's expectations, estimates and projections as of the date on which the statements were made. This forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements with respect to the Company's business strategy, plans, development, objectives, performance, outlook, growth, cash flow, projections, targets and expectations, mineral reserves and resources, results of exploration and related expenses. Generally, this forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as 'outlook', 'anticipate', 'project', 'target', 'potential', 'likely', 'believe', 'estimate', 'expect', 'intend', 'may', 'would', 'could', 'should', 'scheduled', 'will', 'plan', 'forecast', 'evolve' and similar expressions. Persons reading this announcement are cautioned that such statements are only predictions, and that the Company's actual future results or performance may be materially different. Forward looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information.
