The Ross property, located 1.5 km to the south of the Victory property, comprises gold placers found in the Pliocene Old Man Group gravels, thought to represent erosional products of cyclic outwash deposits and moraine fronts of successive glaciers. The Old Man Group comprises three units, with the uppermost member (Humphrey's Conglomerate) considered to the most prospective for gold placer concentration. Historical mining of "stacked" gold leaders from this unit and to a much lesser extent of the underlying Jones Formation and Donnelly Conglomerate, immediately to the north of the property, reported gold production of 168,000 oz (1890-1920) and 130,000 oz (1985-2002). Remnant gold leaders of the Humphrey's Conglomerate are still visible today in the southwestern pit wall. Mapped southern extensions of the Humphrey's Conglomerate (Hancock, 1980), together with the presence of 1900s sunken shafts (to maximum depth of 125 m) on the southern property margin, clearly demonstrate the resource potential. As a result the Company undertook a series of excavator-dug trenches and test pits in the northern portion of the property (closest to the 1985-2002 dug pit) to confirm this concept prior to the commencement of the RC drilling.
RC drilling, consisting of six (6) widely spaced holes, was carried out in the northern half of the Ross property (see map) as a phase 1 drilling program, based on positive indications of gold-bearing alluvial horizons. Significant high-grade gold intercepts were reported from a number of the phase 1 drill holes. Three holes (RC01, RC03 and RC04) intersected auriferous gravels, while the remaining three holes intersected non‑prospective Pah-pah shallow marine sediments.
Ross Property - Significant Reverse Circulation (RC) Drill Hole Results
|
Drill |
Hole Depth |
From |
To |
Interval |
Au |
Comments |
|
RC01 |
85.0 |
1.0 |
37.0 |
36.0 |
0.33 |
Drill hole recovery 1.0-18.5 m ranging from 34.5-135.0% |
|
RC03 |
95.0 |
0.0 |
24.0 |
24.0 |
0.27 |
Drill hole recovery 0.0-10.0 m ranging from 25-95% |
Preliminary drilling identified the presence of southerly trending auriferous leaders that although are confined in the north, have greater volume potential in the central and southern parts of the property areas. A further round of drilling will be undertaken to test tonnage and grade potential, which, if positive, would allow the Company to establish its own mining operation, or provide "feed" to a nearby (<1.0 km trucking distance) operation.
The majority of West Coast placer gold mining operations appear to be profitable at 0.13 g/t to 0.16 g/t (based upon personal communications with five local private operating mining companies). Grades both on the properties and along strike in current mining operations are often in excess of 0.60 g/t and thus suggest potential for "high grade" placer deposits (based upon personal communications with two private companies who have encountered grades as high as 5 g/t in prospecting trenches along the same beach strandline that is being investigated on the Victory ground - a Qualified Person has not verified these numbers on behalf of Superior). With the current well-established mining infrastructure the potential exists for the Company to quickly establish operations in order to generate cash flow. There is no certainty such an operation would be economically viable.
