Comstock Lode District
North American precious metals mining company, focused in Nevada,
GoldSpring, Inc. Virginia City, NV., OTCBB: GSPG, is a North American precious metals mining company, focused in Nevada, with extensive, contiguous property in the Comstock Lode District. Our Company was formed in mid-2003, and we acquired two properties in the Comstock Lode before the end of the year.
We secured permits, built an infrastructure and brought the exploration project into test mining production within a year of its acquisition. The Company, in 2005, began consolidating the Comstock Lode by acquiring additional properties in the district, expanding our footprint and creating opportunities for exploration and mining. We are an emerging company, looking to build on our success through the acquisition of other mineral properties in the Comstock Lode District with reserves or exploration potential.
The Company's objectives are to increase reserves through exploration, expand its footprint in the Comstock, resume mining, optimize its production, and maximize shareholder value
In the first quarter of 2007, we temporarily ceased mining activity while we focus on delineating the ore body and exploratory drilling that should lead to a comprehensive mine plan and, ultimately, to more efficient mining in the future.
The Company turned a corner during 2007 with the final settlement of the Parent litigation and settlement of the Degerstrom litigation, both of which had caused a drain of financial and human resources that severely drained Company resources. Given the end of this litigation and continued challenges in capital raising efforts, the Company’s management determined that there was a need to reevaluate the Company’s business plan with a view toward the best way to maximize shareholder value and protection of our secured creditors.
In 2008, the Company began to execute its new business plan with all activities focused on resumption of mine production in Fiscal Year 2009. The most relevant steps taken are as follows:
Adjustments to this analysis have been made over the past few months, all with the goal to best utilize the Company’s limited financial resources to increase shareholder value and to focus on raising additional capital to reinstate mining production operations
Results of Operations and Operational Plan
Our Comstock Lode Mine, which is located in Storey County, Nevada, went into test mining production in late third quarter 2004. We have not established reserves on this exploration project. Therefore, all of our activities on this property are considered test mining or exploratory in nature. In November 2005, we retained mining engineer Jim Golden, who became our COO in 2006, to conduct a comprehensive review of all aspects of the Comstock Lode Mine operation, including the overall mine plan, with the objective of further improving efficiency, increasing production, and reducing costs.
Furthermore, TechBase of Colorado, with the help of our consultants, is expected to complete a detailed mine plan and a reserve report for the Comstock Lode Project in the fourth quarter 2008 or first quarter 2009. We believe that these steps coupled with our exploratory drilling of the Hartford Complex will improve our overall performance at the Comstock Lode Mine.
We had planned to commence our exploratory drilling program in mid 2007 if capital resources allowed; however, due to insufficient funds, this was delayed until the December 2007. In late 2007, we retained Dwight Juras, Ph. D. geologist, to assist in overseeing our exploration program at the Comstock Lode Mine and in the Comstock Lode district. Mr. Juras has over thirty years of diverse geological and exploration experience in the mining industry. He has worked for several major mining companies.
We have allocated a budget of $2,000,000 to explore and develop our claims at the Comstock Lode Project. Exploratory drilling started in late 2007 and is scheduled to continue throughout 2008. Initial drilling has been in the Hartford Complex, and drilling consists of surface mine drilling down to a depth of 400 feet and covers approximately 40 acres.
We intend to target our exploration toward expanding our mineralized material inventory at our Hartford Complex property in the Comstock Lode District and toward developing new mineral properties in the Comstock. The successful location of additional mineralized material on the existing property would allow us to expand the size and the lifespan of the Comstock Lode mining project, exclusive of new property acquisitions. It is our belief that we possess an advantage with our status as likely the only heap leach gold mining permit holder in the area. This permit is relatively difficult to obtain, and it is one that we can expand to include new areas in the event we locate and wish to process new deposits.
The Company hired Orbit Garant Drilling to perform exploration and developmental drilling at the Comstock project, and four holes were drilled by the end of December, with third party laboratory testing yielding encouraging ore grades from samples tested from the first four holes. The Company also hired two mining engineers and a Ph. D. geologist as consultants to its team to further augment its expertise in all facets of mining, including metallurgy. In order to fund its exploration efforts, the Company, since early December 2007, has raised in excess of $4,650,000 (of which $4,150,000 has been funded as of September 30, 2008) in capital to finance the exploratory drilling.
First Nine Months of 2008 Developments
The Company has drilled a total of 89 holes in its 100 hole Phase 1exploratory program through October 2008 at the Hartford Complex. The purpose of this program is to define the boundaries of the ore bodies and to produce a comprehensive reserve report and mine plan by the end of the 2008 calendar year.
The total estimated cost of this plan is $2,000,000 of which $1,357,000 has been expended to date. As of September 30, 2008, $1,500,000 has already been received of the total $2.5 million committed by a related party in new loans to us through the end of 2008. Initial report results are encouraging.
The initial resource report released in September after obtaining 3rd party assays on 38 drill holes completed to date plus assay results from 450 holes from prior drill campaigns indicated a resource of 4,926,000 tons grading 0.080 ounces per ton gold containing 392,000 ounces at a cutoff grade of 0.030 ounces per ton.
The resource is highlighted by 930,000 tons grading 0.209 ounces per ton gold containing 194,000 ounces of gold using 0.10 ounces per ton gold cutoff grade. A reserve report is expected to be completed during the fourth quarter of 2008 or first quarter 2009. The Company intends to expand the exploration program beyond the Hartford Complex in the fourth quarter of 2008