The Company has integrated a comprehensive underground and above ground geological database of the Project area into a 3-D working model to assess the Project’s exploration potential and future exploration plan. A ground geophysical survey is being expanded from the 2021 program to cover the entire project area after the acquisition of the Page Mine and surrounding area which was consummated during Q4, 2021. Coupled with other 2022 field programs, the Company will be in a good position to devise a high impact drilling campaign later in the year.
Past recommendations from third party qualified persons and persons that have evaluated the project speak of strong exploration potential; examples of some recommendations include:
At the Blackhawk Mine the Curlew vein strike’s east-west through the Project area but has never been tested further than the western sector of the Project. This significant vein structure has never been followed up and extended. The vein projects into the Revett quartzite beds which is a top producing geological formation in the Silver Valley. Although production is limited on the Curlew vein, it is structurally similar to some of the most productive veins in the Silver Belt portion of the Coeur d’Alene district.
Also, at the bottom of the Blackhawk mine at the 1200 level, geological maps reflect strong veining within a preferential quartzite host that indicates the vein structure is intact and continues at depth. This is a strong drill target that needs to be tested on dip.
At the recently acquired Page Mine, the Tony vein, which produced over 4 million tons of high grade ore, was apparently not detected east of the Page Mine shaft by ASARCO. There is potential the Tony vein may be present in the footwall of the Curlew vein structure; this being another high priority future followup.
At other historic mines at the Project, ore potential remains evident. Below both the Ranger mine and Wyoming Mine, the vein structures remain wide open on dip. The eastern extension of the Ranger mine supported from USGS geological mapping shows a vein above the Ranger Tunnel in the central portion of the property that was never discovered in the Ranger tunnel, possibly because the Ranger tunnel did not extend far enough; also, noted in the literature were numerous veins not mined in the tunnel that might develop into ore shoots within favourable lithologies.
Unmapped extensions of northwest-trending Bluebird-type veins at Bunker Hill Mine (bordring to the east of the Project) may also be present within the Revett formation. The Bluebird-type veins were the main productive veins at Bunker Hill. Very large ore shoots occur in the Bunker Hill mine where the east-northeast veins intersected Bluebird-type veins in the Revett formation.
The Crown Point mine, the richest in silver production, is a shallow mine that has only been mined to 200 feet below elevation yet it has a shaft that was sunk to the 800 foot level indicating that vein structures continue at depth. Other positive indications are anomalous surface geology channel samples returning 7.8 ounces per ton silver and 1% lead that lines up with a developed on but un-stoped section of the Crown Point mine. The Crown Point appears to not have been cut off by faulting and the high grade silver values returned from historical production and being shallow make this target one of the highest priorities to drill test in 2022.
Ranger-Page Presentation