Trinity Project Synopsis
In keeping with the company's corporate mandate to identify and develop projects with short term horizons to revenue, and long term resource expansion potential, below is a synopsis on the Trinity Project; the first project that fits these objectives.
Location and Infrastructure
- The property is accessible via paved roads approximately 23 miles northwest of Lovelock, Nevada
- Lovelock is the county seat of Pershing County and is located on US Interstate 80 approximately 85 miles easterly from Reno
- The main east-west railway line transverses Nevada through Lovelock
Project History
- Silver mineralization was discovered at Trinity by U.S. Borax in 1981 and subsequently explored under a joint venture between U.S. Borax and Santa Fe Pacific Gold from 1982 to 1986 leading to development of the Trinity mine.
- The Trinity silver mine was operated by U.S. Borax from 1987 to 1989, produced approximately 5 million ounces of silver from approximately 1.1 million tons of oxidized ore grading 6 to seven ounces silver per ton. Silver was produced by heap leaching. Only the oxide cap was mined leaving the sulfide resource intact.
- The property was explored further by Santa Fe Pacific Gold for gold between 1990 and 1992. Newmont acquired the Trinity Mine property when it bought Santa Fe Pacific Gold. Renaissance Gold leased the property from Newmont in 2005 and explored the property until 2007. There has been no exploration since that time.
- The potential is good to add to the known deposit and to find additional similar deposits under the pediment cover. Many of the known geophysical anomalies have not been tested.
Trinity Silver Property Overview
- The property consists of approximately 9,120 acres in total
- Most of the known silver resource is on fee land
- A preliminary resource model for silver has been made showing a total non-NI 43-101 compliant geologic resource at a cutoff grade of 1 oz/ton of approximately 20 million ounces of silver. A new NR 43-101 resource model which includes the lead-zinc resource will be completed soon.
- Possible fast-track of 2.0 years from signing to construction
- Open pit for rapid initial cash flow if conditions warrant
- Potential for development of underground resources when the pit is exhausted
- Metallurgical work completed by the previous operators has yielded very good recoveries for silver, lead and zinc by flotation
- Mine facilities would be placed on fee land
- No legacy issues from past mining
- Nevada is a mining friendly state
- There is very good potential to add to the known deposit and to find additional similar deposits under the pediment cover. Early geophysical exploration was not definitive and many of the known geophysical anomalies have not been tested. Additional geophysical work will be done to follow-up on the previous work.
Geologic Setting
- Disseminated silver mineralization occurs as mico-fractures, stockwork, and breccia infill in Tertiary-age rhyolite as well as the underlying Triassic metasediments. Sulfide mineralization consists mainly of various silver minerals, sphalerite and galena. High grade silver intercepts of up to 10 ft of 60 ounces Ag per ton have been intersected by drilling in the metasediments
- The deposit chemistry and geologic setting is similar to the large silver deposits of Bolivia and Tajikistan