Lahontan drills 2,569m geotechnical program

Lahontan Gold said on May 20 that it had completed a 2,569-metre geotechnical drilling campaign at its Santa Fe Mine project in Nevada, framing the work as part of mine development and permitting rather than a headline assay program. The company said the campaign covered 11 diamond core and reverse-circulation holes across the project area. (lahontangoldcorp.com) It said the drilling was aimed at better defining groundwater elevations and collecting wall-rock samples for waste-rock characterization. The update came as Lahontan said it was advancing multiple technical and permitting workstreams at Santa Fe. ### Why does a geotechnical drill program matter if it is not chasing new ounces? A geotechnical program is used to answer engineering and permitting questions that resource drilling does not fully resolve. (markets.businessinsider.com) Lahontan said one objective was groundwater monitoring, because showing that proposed open pits will not intersect groundwater is an important part of mine permitting. The company said only minor groundwater flow was encountered in one drill hole and that piezometers were installed to further confirm groundwater conditions across the site. The second objective was waste-rock characterization. Lahontan said drilling targeted wall rock around the Santa Fe deposits to collect representative samples of material expected to be placed in future waste-rock storage facilities. That kind of data is typically used in permitting files, water management planning and mine design assumptions, according to the company’s description of the program. (lahontangoldcorp.com) ### What exactly was drilled at Santa Fe? The company said the completed campaign totaled 2,569 metres in 11 holes using both diamond core and reverse-circulation methods. Core drilling is generally used where engineers want intact rock for logging, structural measurements and laboratory testing, while reverse-circulation drilling is often used to cover ground more quickly and collect representative cuttings. (lahontangoldcorp.com) Lahontan did not break out the exact metre split between the two methods in the May 20 update. Santa Fe is Lahontan’s flagship property in Nevada’s Walker Lane. The company said the project covers 28.3 square kilometres and that the historic mine produced 359,202 ounces of gold and 702,067 ounces of silver between 1988 and 1995 from open pits using heap-leach processing. (lahontangoldcorp.com) Those legacy workings are part of why current engineering work includes both pit-related studies and drilling on historic heap-leach pads. ### How does this fit into the permitting process now underway? Lahontan has been moving Santa Fe through federal permitting steps with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. In a March 18, 2025 update, the company said the BLM was reviewing its expanded plan of operations and that Lahontan was working through comments on environmental baseline reports. (lahontangoldcorp.com) Chief Executive Kimberly Ann said at the time that the company was looking for a Finding of No Significant Impact and formal approval of the expanded plan later in 2025. The May 20 update ties the geotechnical work directly to that broader permitting push. Lahontan said the drilling was part of mine development, permitting and exploration activity, and linked the groundwater work to demonstrating that future open pits would not intersect groundwater. (markets.businessinsider.com) ### What else is happening at Santa Fe alongside this work? Kimberly Ann said in the May 20 release that Lahontan was advancing mine development, permitting, exploration drilling and preparation for future growth at West Santa Fe. The company said samples from drill core and reverse-circulation cuttings had been sent for laboratory analysis, with results expected over the coming months. (lahontangoldcorp.com) RESPEC Company, LLC is also advancing an updated mineral resource estimate, Lahontan said, with geologic and metal domaining largely completed ahead of block modeling. The company said that estimate is expected in the coming weeks. Lahontan also said sonic core drilling of historic heap-leach pads has begun, while its reverse-circulation rig will shift focus to step-out drilling across targets including Slab West, South Slab, Guzzler and EM. (lahontangoldcorp.com) ### What should investors and local stakeholders watch next? The next concrete milestones are technical rather than promotional. Lahontan said laboratory results from the geotechnical holes are expected over the coming months, and the updated mineral resource estimate is due in the coming weeks. The company also said further heap-leach pad work and exploration drilling are continuing at Santa Fe, with funding in place into 2027 following an April 8, 2026 private placement that raised C$13.6 million, according to the release. (manilatimes.net) (markets.businessinsider.com)