New Zealand

Superior Mining International holds two alluvial gold properties and a hard-rock gold-base metal property on the South Island of New Zealand.

The company has carried out exploration programs in the historical Ross alluvial goldfield located on the west coast of the South Island, approximately 20 km south of Hokitika, on two properties: Victory North and Ross South.

In December 2010, Superior Mining acquired an exploration permit for the Collingwood property in the Aorere Valley and the coastal foothills of Golden Bay, located in an area prospective for gold-base metal in the northwest Nelson region, South Island. Back in the mid 1850s, the Aorere Goldfield became the first officially proclaimed goldfield in New Zealand.

Millions of years ago, when the tectonic plates forced the Southern Alps to rise from the Tasman Sea, two precious minerals were brought to the surface in abundance: pounamu (jade) and gold. The Maori first discovered the dense glass-like jade, and prized it for carving mere, a hand-to-hand combat weapon, and for ornamental sculptures.

Ross Goldfield

The West Coast of New Zealand's South Island has contributed approximately 25% of the country's annual gold production over the last 10 to 15 years. Total reported placer production is in excess of 9.0 million ounces. All of the gold produced in this region since the 1950s has come from placer deposits.

The West Coast is a long narrow region confined between steep mountain ranges to the east and the Tasman Sea to the west. In between are foothills to the main ranges, terraced river valleys and a narrow, discontinuous coastal plain. Beach placers are found in present-day beaches, older post-glacial beach deposits, and the raised beach deposits of successive marine interglacials, which underlie the remnants of coastal terraces (Crown Minerals, 2008). Gold, always very fine, is concentrated with other heavy minerals into lenticular beach placers. Since 1980 there have been a large number of successful small and medium-scale gold recovery operations using hydraulic excavators and mobile gold recovery plants.

When Europeans started to arrive in the area en masse in the 1860s, many came for one thing alone: gold. Most of the towns on the West Coast, like Ross, owe their beginnings at least in part to those feverish days of the New Zealand Gold Rush. Ross is a gold-mining town and the last example of deep-level alluvial gold mining in New Zealand. The largest gold nugget ever found in New Zealand - the 'Roddy' nugget - was discovered in Ross. It was the size of a man's fist. Some estimates put about $700 million worth of gold remaining under the town. The goldfields are still rich in gold, and one of many local tourist attractions include gold panning as an activity for visitors.

Ongoing exploration on and around the Victory North and Ross South properties by Superior Mining has included drilling a number of reverse circulation holes, a trenching and test pit program with bulk sampling using a mobile bulk sample plant for evaluation.

Collingwood

The Collingwood Property is located in an area prospective for gold and base metals in the northwest Nelson region of the South Island.

The property covers 167.5 km², encompassing the lower 25 km reaches of the Aorere River valley and the coastal foothills of Golden Bay.

Gold was produced historically from the Aorere Valley through alluvial workings scattered throughout the property area and, subsequently, from hard-rock deposits in the hills and on the valley sides. In 1856, the Aorere goldfield became the first officially proclaimed goldfield in New Zealand. Some 80,000 oz of gold have been produced with an average grade in some areas reaching 9.4 g/t at Johnston's United and quartz reefs assaying up to 4.6 g/t gold at the Phoenix Mine.

Exploration in the late 1960s to early 1980s discovered a number of porphyry molybdenum deposits in the district, typically occurring as molybdenite disseminations in joint-controlled quartz vein stockworks with accessory pyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and rare galena, sphalerite and bismuth.

Preliminary exploration programs on this property will comprise remote sensing studies, reconnaissance to semi-detailed geological mapping and sampling programs.