WEST SILVER CLOUD Au-Ag, MIDAS TREND and RIMROCK Au-Ag, Elko County, Nevada
DEPOSIT MODEL EXPLORATION MODEL PROPERTY DESCRIPTION
NORTHERN NEVADA RIFTS METALLOGENIC TREND
Exploration Model:
The new, widely-accepted exploration model for the Midas-Goldstorm, Sleeper, Hollister (Ivanhoe Creek), Mule Canyon, and Silver Cloud high-grade, vein-type, Low Sulfidation quartz-adularia gold-silver deposits in the Northern Nevada Rifts metallogenic province. These deposits were formed 14 to 17 Ma ago in extensional, rift-related felsic- or bimodal mafic-to-felsic volcanic environments. The top of the high-grade ore zones, e.g. at Midas and Goldstorm, formed at boiling horizons 350 to 400 meters below the paleo- ground surface (new NEM fluid inclusion data), and extend downward for variable distances.The Midas Mine shows some of the world's bestlateral vein ore continuity, with consistent head grades of 1.5 oz/ton Gold and 12 oz/ton Silver, over a length of more than 1 kilometer, and this may be a characteristic of the Midas District which distinguishes it from lesser quality vein mineral districts further to the west in the Great Basin of the Western U.S. The Midas Mine Au-Ag vein system has a vertical mineable extent of approximately 500+ metres, and is up to 800 metres in height at Sleeper.
Mercury-rich but gold-poor silica sinter layers were formed at the ground surface above these high-grade deposits, along with local poddy discontinuous gold-rich shoots above -350 meters where zones of flash boiling extended upward along fracture-controlled fluid pipes, perhaps above an areal groundwater boiling interface.In the 1970s-1990’s, exploration companies typically only looked for near-surface (0 to –125 meters) open-pitable, disseminated gold-silver deposits.Silver Cloud, Hollister - Ivanhoe Creek - Rimrock (Senator Minerals) and others were never drilled, because they had noanomalous gold or pathfinder element geochem values (apart from Hg and Se) at the surface.Teck drilled a hole at Silver Cloud that contained 5 feet of 145 gpt Au in a silica veinlet-rich zone, at a depth of 318 meters, below barren surface sinters (see table below).Placer Dome leased the property from Teck, drilled 3 campaigns of holes in the past two years, and made a new discovery through drilling on the Egg Hill fault structure west of Silver Cloud's Teck discovery hole, returning 12.2 metres @ 5.6 gpt Au. The key to success in exploration for these Midas-type deposits is to conduct drilling into the zone of vein-metal continuity at 400+ metres below the paleosurface sinters, in structural dilation zones that have enriched mercury and/or selenium contents.
WEST SILVER CLOUD Au-Ag PROPERTY, Midas Trend, Elko County, NV, adjoining the Placer Dome/Geologix property.
Staked and 100% owned by RMIC Gold. It is on the western control feeder fault of the Silver Cloud gold-silver system, and has never been drilled previously. It is also on the northern extension of Rimrock Mine property leased by Senator Minerals Inc., with strong, previously-mined high-level mercury mineralization along fault zones. Excellent gold targets at depth, never drilled for Midas-style gold ore. High grade gold intercepts just to east by Placer Dome and Geologix, which may be controlled by the fault zone on the West Silver Cloud gold property. Mineralization crops out at the surface. Could be the "missing link" to possible gold ores at Silver Cloud!
Geologix decribed its adjoining (to east) Silver Cloud property:
Introduction
SilverCloud covers a very large hydrothermal alteration zone in volcanic rocks that also hosts Great Basin Gold's Hollister (Ivanhoe) low-sulfidation, bonanza vein deposit (819,000 tonnes @ 35.3 g/t gold and 195 g/t silver, proven and probable) 8 km to the northeast. SilverCloud lies 20 km southeast of Newmont Mining's Midas deposit, also a volcanic-hosted low-sulfidation, bonanza vein system that contains 4 million ounces of gold and 45 million ounces of silver. High-grade veins in these areas have been discovered beneath gold, silver and selenium anomalies.
Details of the SilverCloud Property
Previous exploration on the SilverCloud Property by Teck and Placer Dome has proven the existence of low-sulfidation, bonanza-grade vein occurrences beneath the mercury-bearing hot spring silica deposits. Results include drill intercepts of 1.5 metres of 157 g/t gold at a depth of 318 metres and 12.2 metres of 5.53 g/t gold at a depth of 208 metres found in widely separate target areas. Two core holes drilled by Geologix in other areas encountered highly anomalous gold and silver and trace elements in sulfide-rich breccias and low-temperature banded quartz veins. Less than 10% of the large SilverCloud property has been explored.
West Silver Cloud Aeromagnetic map
RIMROCK Midas-Style Gold-Silver property, Midas District, Elko County, Nevada
