Rationale

The purpose of the 2006 drilling program, Burmeister told us, is to determine "the true potential of the Dog Bone Ridge area target." Niel Prenn, a professional engineer with Mine Development Associates of Reno, Nevada, completed a scoping level update of Echo Bay's 1996 assessment of the project. He wrote, "The project appears to have reasonably attractive economics if the 'potentially mineable material' can be doubled at $375/ounce gold price." Prenn saw the Kilgore project as one with a "large epithermal gold deposit." This confirmed an earlier geological report by Stanton W. Caddey, who wrote in an October 2003 report, "Exploration potential at the Kilgore property for more than doubling the present gold resource with further exploration drilling is regarded as excellent."

The encouraging drill hole in 2004 helped move this project to the current drilling program. "We believe the Dog Bone Ridge target area represents the core of the hydrothermal system that has generated the known low grade resource at Kilgore," Burmeister speculated. That's why he is drilling the Dog Bone Ridge target area. The first holes will be offsets to the promising 2004 discovery hole. "We don't know the direction or dipping," said Burmeister, asking "Which way does it go?" The first hole will help Burmeister orient the direction on the north side of the target. Burmeister told us, "The knowledge we hope to gain from the Elsa Zone offsets will be important in efficiently testing other Elsa 'look-a-like' definitive targets within the Dog Bone Ridge target area."

Expectations

A drill campaign tends to intensify expectations. Share prices tend to rally higher, depending upon market conditions, during a drill campaign. The company hopes to drill about twelve holes, down between 500 and 800 feet, in the target area. The first hole may be encouraging, but the results from that hole function as an identifier for where to place the next drill hole. "The best target has never been touched," said Burmeister, referring to the north side of the Dog Bone Ridge. As with many promising properties, they don't always offer the easiest access. In this case, Burmeister's expectant target on the north side of Dog Bone Ridge might only be accessed by helicopter, if that's where he has to drill.

What happens if Burmeister is accurate in his assessment? If his favored Dog Bone Ridge target does represent the core of the hydrothermal system, then what will he have found? "As such, it represents an attractive high grade epithermal vein-type gold target," Burmeister responded. "The successful interception of high grade gold during the 2004 program confirmed this interpretation."

In 1980, Burmeister founded Bull Run Gold Mines, serving as Chief Executive and developing a successful Nevada gold mine. He arranged the IPO, which led to a NASDAQ National Market listing, and ran the company for eight years.

For thirteen years before that, he was the chief geologist for Silver Standard Resources. Burmeister discovered the Mill Creek orebody in Elko (Nevada), which moved that company forward. The property was subsequently sold to Freeport-McMoran. Burmeister also conceived for Silver Standard of a novel regional exploration program, covering 10,000 square miles in the Yukon over nearly unexplored territory. In a joint-venture with ASARCO, he helped discovery the Minto orebody in the Yukon. The copper-gold deposit is now going into production through Sherwood Copper.

After forty years in the mining industry, he hopes Dog Bone Ridge will add to his string of gold discoveries and corporate success stories


James Finch is a senior editor of StockInterview.com and is the Market Journal Outlook Editor. Mr. Finch has been awarded Platinum Author Expert or Expert Author status by more than two dozen article websites. His syndicated features now appear on more than 100 online publications. Finch is one of the mostly highly ranked online journalists by published circulation numbers on many websites.

Tags: target area, share prices, offsets, first hole, gold price, reno nevada