RENO - General Metals announced Oct. 31 that it retained a contractor to remove the old Independence Mill site to enable the company to proceed in development of its mine to begin production at the company's Independence Mine Project in the Battle Mountain Gold & Silver Mining District in Lander County.
The agreement allows for the survey and removal of existing mill site buildings, machinery, equipment, parts and debris on the Independence site, with the objective of bringing the area into compliance with 43 CFR 3809.
The contractor has already begun removing the mill building and equipment used in recovering gold and silver during the last few years of production from the property in the 1980s. Reported historic production by the various operators totaled 750,200 ounces silver and 11,029 ounces gold.
The old Independence mill site is located in the area of the company's planned open pit mine. The reclamation work addresses the mill site disturbance by previous operators. The removal of these buildings and obsolete milling equipment will enable the company to optimize the open pit design and thereby maximize the project's mineable tonnage.
"Our plan all along has been to remove these structures first so we can begin mining," said Daniel J. Forbush, president and director of General Metals Corporation. "The old buildings sit on top of the mineralized zone included in the resource calculations reported in our press release dated Sept. 8, 2011. The measured and indicated gold resource in the shallow mineralized zone increased by 7.5 percent from the October 2009 calculations to 223,200 ounces in 16.1 million tons. The silver resource totals 3,784,400 ounces. At the London PM fix on Oct. 12, 2011, of $1,682.00 per ounce for gold and $32.89 per ounce for silver, a deposit containing 297,000 ounces of gold equivalents would have a gross in situ value of approximately $500 million."
The company is developing a plan for open pit mining of the near surface gold and silver resources and for heap leaching the gold and silver ore.
"We are pleased to be able to begin the environmental cleanup of the old Independence Gold & Silver Mine site which had produced gold and silver since the 1970s," said Forbush. "The removal of these old mill structures will facilitate fast-track design of our open pit and leaching operations. We look forward to working with Merritt Construction and completing the task."
Further details and additional new information regarding the Independence mineralization, drilling efforts, both historical and current together with current permitting activity will be posted on the company's Web site shortly at www.generalmetalscorporation.com.
General Metals Corporation is an aggressive junior minerals exploration and development company, based in Reno. The company is actively exploring and developing its 100 percent controlled Independence property strategically located in the prolific and highly prospective Battle Mountain Mining District of Nevada.
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