GOLDEN ARROW, NYE COUNTY, NEVADA

Golden Arrow Highlights

  • Potential multi-million ounce deposit (Oxide & Sulfide)
  • Good metallurgy for open pit / heap leach operation
  • High in system – potential for higher grades and more ounces at depth (e.g. Round Mountain)
  • Preliminary Scoping Study in 2009 indicated Golden Arrow will become robustly economic with the discovery of one additional center of mineralization
  • 2010 Exploration Goal – two new centers of gold mineralization (deposits)

Friday, May 01, 2009
Golden Arrow NI 43-101

The Golden Arrow property is the premiere property in our portfolio.  Historic exploration has resulted in the discovery and subsequent drill-definition of two centers of (volcanic rock-hosted epithermal) gold-silver mineralization.   Our resource modeling  has defined an Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource for the property.  A large exploration database shows us exceptional exploration potential, yet the district remains surprisingly underexplored.

Location and Property.  The Golden Arrow property is located in the Nevada high desert, approximately 40 miles (60 kilometers) east of Tonopah, Nye County. Golden Arrow is on the flank of the Kawich Range and on the eastern margin of Stone Cabin Valley within the Golden Arrow mining district.  The property has a number of favorable attributes for exploration of mineral resources: gentle topography, mild climate, available ground water, and close proximity to highways and towns. 

 

The property consists of 279 unpatented lode mineral claims subject to the mining lease by and between Gerald W. Baughman and Fabiola Baughman and Nevada Sunrise, LLC effective January 1, 2002 as amended by the First Amendment to Mining Lease dated May 1, 2003, the Second Amendment to Mining Lease dated June 30, 2004 and the Third Amendment to Mining Lease dated March 1, 2010. The 17 patented lode mineral claims are wholly owned by Intor Resources Corporation a wholly owned subsidiary of Nevada Sunrise Gold Corporation.  In total, the property covers an area of approximately 5684 acres (2300 hectares).  It is important to note that this is the first time in many years that the entire Golden Arrow district has been consolidated by one company for exploration. 

 

History.  High-grade gold-quartz veins were discovered at Golden Arrow in 1905 and mined through the 1930’s from numerous shafts to 120 meters depth, where the mines watered out.  The property has been explored by a number of companies in subsequent years; most significantly including Homestake (1988), Westgold (1989-90), Independence (1992), Coeur d’Alene (1993-94), Kennecott (1996), Tombstone (1997), and Pacific Ridge (2003-2004).  This exploration work has included more than 400 drill holes exceeding 150,000 feet, plus geochemical and geophysical surveys.  Nevada Sunrise LLC acquired the property in 2002. 

 

Geologic Setting.  Golden Arrow is situated along the northeastern margin of the Walker Lane structural zone and along the western margin of the Kawich volcanic caldera.  Walker Lane is a zone of complicated geological formations including complex faulting, igneous intrusion, volcanism, and hydrothermal mineralization resulting from the North American continent colliding with the Pacific tectonic plate.   This has created the formation of a great variety of gold, silver and other mineral deposits.  The Walker Lane has past production and defined resources of more than 30 million ounces of gold and 400 million ounces of silver.  Notable districts include the Comstock Lode, the historic Tonopah and Goldfield districts, and Round Mountain, one of the most significant gold mines in Nevada. 

 

Deposit Geology. The Golden Arrow district is situated along the western circular fault edge of the Kawich Mountains volcanic center.  Bedrock geology is characterized by a thick sequence of volcanic rocks ranging in composition from andesite to rhyolite and including the complex geological formations typical of caldera margin settings: flows, flow-domes, tuffs, lithic tuff breccias, ignimbrites, graben-filling units, lithologic wedges and volcaniclastic maar sediments.  In the immediate deposit area, the oldest rocks are andesite flows and volcaniclastic rocks. These were intruded by a cluster of rhyolite flow-domes and a large alaskite stock, and are overlain by rhyolite ash-flow tuffs and ignimbrite. 

 

Gold and silver mineralization at Golden Arrow includes mineral zones typical of both low-sulfidation quartz-adularia veins and high-sulfidation hot-spring type mineralization.  Historic production was realized from discrete high-grade ore shoots within larger fault-controlled quartz-adularia-gold veins in andesite of the volcanic basement.  More recent exploration has mainly focused upon definition of large-tonnage disseminated mineralization, with the discovery and delineation of two centers of mineralization – the Gold Coin and Hidden Hill deposits.  The Gold Coin deposit outcrops and extends northwestward from the Confidence Mountain rhyolite flow dome.  The Hidden Hill deposit, located approximately 1000 feet (300 meters) northwest from Gold Coin, is largely hosted in silicified rhyolite-arkose maar sediments deposited in a basin extending away from the rhyolite center.  Much of the higher grade mineralization is spatially associated with pepperite breccia at the margin of latite dikes. 

 

Geochemistry.  Past exploration has included several programs of rock-chip and soil geochemistry.  Rock chip geochemistry has defined high concentrations of gold associated with the Confidence Mountain rhyolite flow-dome and extending some 2 kilometers southward along the Page fault system.  The most extensive multi-element soil geochemical survey, completed in 2003, covered 8.5 square kilometers.  Gold and pathfinder elements highlight the known deposits and point toward several other exploration targets.

 

Geophysics.  A considerable array of geophysical information has been collected on Golden Arrow over the years using various methods of measurement, including gravity, ground and aeromagnetic surveys, airborne EM, IP-resistivity, and radiometrics.  During 2007, NSGC reprocessed most of the original digital geophysical data to complete three-dimensional interpretive geophysical models for the Golden Arrow district.  The known deposits occur in distinct geologic settings, with discernable geophysical signatures.  The new geophysical models define additional exploration targets for drill testing. 

 

Drilling.  The Golden Arrow property has been drilled by seven companies, as noted earlier.  The historical archive that has been assembled by NSGC includes drill core and cuttings, as well as technical data, for 291 drill holes – 281 reverse-circulation percussion holes and 10 diamond core holes – for a total of 148,101 feet (45,141 meters) of drilling.  Of this, approximately 90% of the drilling has been concentrated within the Gold Coin and Hidden Hill deposits.  All of the available core and cuttings have been re-logged in a consistent format by two experienced NSGC geologists; the resulting new geologic model forms the foundation for a computerized Mineral Resource model and estimate.

 

Some of the more interesting historic drill intercepts are summarized in the following table: 

Metallurgy.  Limited metallurgical test work has been completed on material from Golden Arrow.  An independent review of the available studies suggested typical projected gold recoveries of 65% for minus ½ inch or 55% for run-of-mine heap leaching. This is not definitive data but does indicate the cyanide amenability of the tested mineralized material.  The typical depth of oxidation is 80-100 meters.  The silver/gold ratio is highly variable, averaging about 12/1.

 

Resources.  Mine Development Associates of Reno Nevada completed a NI 43-101 compliant Mineral Resource Estimate for the Golden Arrow property in May 2009.  The Mineral Resource Estimate was built upon the geologic model of NSGC.  Geostatistical modeling was completed by zones for the Hidden Hill and Gold Coin deposits.  This defined the deep high-grade structurally-controlled mineralization from the near-surface horizontal disseminated mineralization.  Geologically-defined mineral zones separated the gold and silver resource blocks.  The conclusion of this work resulted in an Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource source, as summarized in the following table. 

 

 

Note:  Silver to gold ratio is 55; variable cutoff grades are 0.01 oz Au/t for oxide and 0.015 for Au/t unoxidized.  Note: numerical discrepancies due to rounding.

Mineral Reserves and Resources Disclaimer

 

Exploration Archive.  NSGC has assembled an exceptional archive of past drilling, geological mapping, geochemical and geophysical data.  This includes all of the core and most of the drill cuttings from past exploration drilling – and includes tons of duplicate drill samples and assay pulps. Most of the technical archive has never been fully compiled, integrated and thoughtfully interpreted.   NSGC has compiled nearly all of this within a Geographic Information System for three-dimensional visualization and interpretation.