St. Elmo Project
Property Location and Ownership
Situated in northeastern Nevada, St. Elmo is a district-scale exploration play located at the intersection of the Midas Trough structural zone and a series of northwest-trending faults in Elko County, Nevada. The Midas Trough hosts several established gold mines including the Ivanhoe, Ken Snyder, Jerritt Canyon mines as well as the past-producing mines of the Island Mountain district and the Jarbidge district. These operations have total reserves in excess of 13 million ounces.
The 415 claims (343 staked by Nevoro, 72 leased) comprising the 8,500 acres St. Elmo project host many small, past-producing operations including the St. Elmo gold mine, the Diamond Jim silver-lead-zinc mine and the Gribble antimony mine.
Geology and Historic Development
The St. Elmo mine is an epithermal vein system hosted in a 2.9 km long fault zone and reportedly produced high-grade gold in the 1940s. There are two historic adits that demonstrate the vein's continuity from surface to a depth of at least 140 m below surface. Harrison Western Mining opened up 70 m (230 feet) of new drift to explore a splay from the main vein.
Approximately 1500 tons of material with an average reported gold grade of
11.3 g/t (0.33 oz/ton) was extracted from the upper 90 m of the vein. In 1990, Hazen Research of Golden, Colorado, analyzed a 360 kg bulk sample of material recovered from the upper 90 m of the underground workings. This sample averaged 80.9 g/t (2.36 oz/ton) gold and preliminary metallurgical testing indicated that 95% of the gold was recoverable using standard gravity and flotation processing methods.
In 1999, reconnaissance drilling (3 diamond drill holes) under the St. Elmo workings intersected values of up to 16 g/t gold (0.466 oz/ton gold) over 2 m within a 16 m-wide zone of quartz breccia.
The Diamond Jim mine is located at the intersection of the St. Elmo and Rosebud structural trends. The operation produced silver, lead and zinc from 1934 until the 1950s. In addition to having potential for a large, low-grade, silver-base metal resource, there is also the potential for structural and stratigraphically controlled gold deposits. Outcrop within steeply dipping structures east of the Diamond Jim assayed 0.4 oz/ton gold and jasperoid outcrops associated with low angle structures assayed 7 g/t gold (0.2 oz/ton gold) -- the area remains unexplored.
The past-producing Rosebud mine is hosted within a series of imbricate thrust faults. Silver-lead-zinc mineralization occurs in a series of shallow-dipping silicified zones with quartz veins extending up to 45 m into the overlying sedimentary rocks. Values of up to 5 g/t gold have been recovered in the overlying rocks.
In 1962, 11 holes, each approximately 100 m in length, were drilled to test the down-dip extension of the Rosebud mine. Each hole reportedly intersected an average of 12 to 150 oz/ton silver over widths of 2.5 to 3.0 m. These drill intersections apparently never received further follow-up investigation. Additionally, three holes drilled east of the Rosebud mine reportedly to have intersected from 30 to 50 oz/ton silver; there was no further investigation.
Two newly discovered parallel vein systems have been found east of the St. Elmo vein. The Sinter vein structure is at least 500m long and the Barite vein is at least 300 m long. Each structure is associated with a siliceous alteration zones within limestone and locally contain barite. Mapping and sampling are underway and evidence suggests these vein structures could represent a possible hot spring gold system, the model for which would be the McLaughlin mine in California with reserves of 2.5 million ounces gold and the Ivanhoe project with reserves and resources of 1.5 million ounces gold.
Located in the north part of the claim block, this formerly productive area is underlain by a granitic intrusive stock with mineralization in veins, breccias, stockworks and skarns in the surrounding sedimentary rocks. The property includes a number of old mines with high-grade values of up to 3 oz/ton gold, 30 to 50 oz/ton silver as well as significant tungsten, antimony and molybdenum occurrences. This is a large under-explored area with considerable upside for epithermal gold-silver, antimony-tungsten-molybdenum, gold, silver skarn, or large tonnage disseminated precious metal deposits.
Planned Exploration
Nevoro has established nine target areas that host both high-grade vein and bulk-tonnage targets, many of which are ready for drilling. These targets include 1) the St. Elmo vein zone comprising several anastimosing gold- and silver-bearing quartz veins and breccia zones with a strike length in excess of 2000 m (6,600 feet); and 2) the Diamond Jim Mine area with mineralized low-angle thrust faults which intersect high-angle veins and structures. In addition to these targets, the project has the potential to host Carlin-style, sediment-hosted gold deposits, as well as tungsten, molybdenum and gold skarn deposits.
Nevoro has applied for drilling permits, and pending US Forest Service approval, anticipates drilling key target areas during the third quarter of 2007.
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