November 22 , 2005 - Fairbanks , Alaska – USA - Vancouver, BC – Canada SILVERADO - OTCBB: SLGLF / Frankfurt : SLGL / Berlin : SLGL
With gold prices holding near an 18 year high, Silverado is continuing its work at the 100% owned Nolan Gold Project, located 280 road miles north of Fairbanks in the Brooks Range of Alaska. A crew of experienced miners will be onsite through much of the winter to drive a drift into an area known as the Swede Channel that has shown very promising results from prior drilling and bulk sampling. During 1999, a 7625 bank cubic yard bulk sample from the channel yielded 623 ounces of gold. Throughout the past two years, geophysical and geochemical surveys, followed up by drilling and trenching have continued to explore lode gold targets, and to define areas of placer gold concentration, known as “pay streaks”. Placer gold pay streaks are created by the erosion of hard rock gold bearing formations. The disintegrated mineral rubble and particles are then transported by wind, water, and gravity processes.
In the Nolan area, multiple glacial events also act to re-erode and re-form secondary placer pay streaks. During transportation, natural sorting occurs to separate lighter minerals such as quartz and feldspars from heavier particles such as gold, silver, and other metallic particles. These pay streaks are anomalies which collectively form in a spatial relationship to the lode gold source.
The Swede Channel is one of those secondary pay streaks which has been formed as a result of glacial down-cutting. High bench placers, including Mary’s Bench, and Eureka Bench, which were previously test mined by Silverado, were cross cut by the channel during an inter-glacial erosion as the main glaciers in the area retreated. Gold from the benches was transported and re-deposited in the Swede Channel.
Nolan gold is unusually coarse, occurring as large nuggets. About half of all of the gold produced from the Nolan project is suitable for nugget jewelry manufacturing. Numerous exceptionally large nuggets have been produced by Silverado, including a 42 troy ounce, 31 troy ounce, 24 troy ounce, as well as thousands of smaller nuggets ranging from pennyweight size up to the larger nuggets mentioned above. Very small grains or dust sized particles are smelted, or retailed in small vials to collectors or in larger lots to investors.
NOLAN GOLD NUGGETS
Recorded gold production from the Nolan Creek/Hammond River area placer deposits, since discovery in 1901, totals almost 200,000 ounces. The largest portion of this production was from Nolan Creek, its tributaries and benches; ground now held by Silverado.
Silverado has recovered 18,507 ounces of placer gold from channel and bench deposits in the Nolan Valley during test mining, most of which occurred between 1993 and 1995. The largest nugget recovered to date weighed 41.35 ounces and was valued at US$ 16,000 by weight. It sold for US $50,000, a premium of 212%.
Most nuggets produced are jewelry grade and sell at an average premium of 66%. When included with the gold dust recovered, the Company’s sales on its total gold recovered from exploration test mining to date has averaged 33% over gold price.
This press release was prepared by Edward J. Armstrong, CPG, a qualified person under NI 43-101 standards.
To learn more about Silverado Gold Mines Ltd., visit us online at www.silverado.com or contact Bob Dynes, Investor relations, toll free at 1-800-665-4646
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