Lahontan Gold Corp. (TSX.V: LG) (OTCQB: LGCXF) has reported initial results from its 2026 Sonic core drilling program at the Santa Fe Mine Project, revealing significant gold and silver mineralization in a historic “low-grade” stockpile. The grades substantially exceed the material’s original classification, according to a press release disseminated by Rocks & Stocks.
The stockpile, located adjacent to Heap Leach Pad Two, contains readily accessible material that the company believes may be suitable for low-cost future reprocessing. Cyanide-extractable gold assays averaged more than 30%, indicating favorable heap-leach characteristics. The nearly 100-hole Sonic drilling program has now concluded across the site’s four historic heap leach pads, with results from six additional holes in the low-grade stockpile expected shortly.
This drilling program is designed to define resources remaining in historic heap leach pads and stockpiles. These could provide a lower-cost source of future processing material as the company advances its goal of restarting production at the Santa Fe Mine in 2027. The Santa Fe Mine project had past production of 359,202 ounces of gold and 702,067 ounces of silver between 1988 and 1995 from open pit mines utilizing heap-leach processing.
Lahontan Gold Corp. is a Canadian mine development and mineral exploration company that holds four top-tier gold and silver exploration properties in the Walker Lane of Nevada. The flagship Santa Fe Mine project has a Canadian National Instrument 43-101 compliant Indicated Mineral Resource of 1,539,000 oz Au Eq (48,393,000 tonnes grading 0.92 g/t Au and 7.18 g/t Ag) and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 411,000 oz Au Eq (16,760,000 tonnes grading 0.74 g/t Au and 3.25 g/t Ag), all pit constrained. The company plans to continue advancing the Santa Fe Mine project towards production, update the Santa Fe Preliminary Economic Assessment, and drill test its satellite West Santa Fe project during 2025.
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Michael Lindholm, CPG, Independent Consulting Geologist to Lahontan Gold Corp., who is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101. The full press release is available at this link.
For the mining industry, these results underscore the potential value in re-evaluating historic stockpiles and heap leach pads. As gold prices remain elevated, reprocessing of previously classified low-grade material could become an economically viable source of production, reducing the need for new mining and lowering capital expenditures. The Santa Fe project’s existing infrastructure and permitted status could accelerate a path to production, providing a model for similar operations in the region.
