The Property is a low sulphidation epithermal gold system similar to the Company's Almaden Gold Project and is situated approximately 130 kilometers north of Boise and 10 kilometers north of the Almaden property.
The Property consists of 640 acres of state ground held under lease plus 23 unpatented lode claims consisting of 460 acres administered by the Bureau of Land Management.
The Property was previously drill tested by Goldfields, Western Epithermal, Cyprus Minerals, and Golconda from 1983 to 1996. Previous operators completed soil geochemical surveys, geological mapping and diamond drilling (6739 metres in 95 holes). Significant drill intersections from previous drill programs are shown in the table below. These results are historic in nature and not NI43-101 compliant as the Company has not at this time verified the drilling procedures or analytical results.
| HOLE # |
FROM (m) |
TO (m) |
INTERVAL (m) |
GRADE (g/tonne) |
| 88-5 |
19.8 |
44.2 |
24.4 |
1.01 |
| |
|
Including |
10.7 |
1.78 |
| |
|
|
|
|
| 90-1 |
13.7 |
47.2 |
33.5 |
1.10 |
| |
|
Including |
13.7 |
1.82 |
| |
|
|
|
|
| 90-3 |
7.6 |
50.3 |
42.7 |
0.97 |
| |
|
Including |
15.2 |
2.02 |
| |
|
|
|
|
| 92-31 |
0.0 |
41.1 |
41.1 |
1.06 |
| |
|
Including |
16.8 |
1.75 |
| |
|
|
|
|
| 96-24 |
27.4 |
68.6 |
41.2 |
1.71 |
| |
|
Including |
18.3 |
3.28 |
| |
|
|
|
|
| 96-25 |
7.6 |
56.4 |
48.8 |
0.96 |
| |
|
Including |
24.4 |
1.35 |
The soil geochemical sampling program identified a gold soil anomaly that is 3.2 kilometres long and trends northwest. Drilling has concentrated in the northern third of this extensive anomaly and the southern two thirds of the anomaly remains largely untested.
The Property is underlain by flat lying to shallow dipping Miocene Columbia River basalts that are overlain by Idaho Group sediments consisting predominantly of sandstone and arkose. The Property is located within the eastern part of the Western Snake River Rift Valley near the eastern boundary fault. Gold mineralization is hosted in northwest trending zones of silicification, stockwork, and hydrothermal breccias within a 30 to 60 meter thick sedimentary interval overlying the basalts.
The terms of the agreement requires Western Standard to undertake a two year exploration program and:
- cash payment to the owners US$50,000 upon signing of the agreement.
- expend a minimum of US$25,000 on the Property annually,
- reimbursement to the Owners for claim maintenance fee payments, filing fees, bond fund payments and annual rental payments on the state lease that come due after the agreement is signed until such time as title to the Property is transferred, if such a transfer occurs, and
- conduct all work on the Property in a responsible manner and in strict accordance with applicable state and federal laws, rules and regulations, including those pertaining to reclamation and environmental protection.
The Company has the right to purchase all property rights from the Owners for a sum of US$300,000 within two years of signing of the agreement and is subject to a continuing over-riding net smelter return (NSR) royalty of 1% on future production from the Property. In the event that the Company wishes to exercise the purchase option within 12 months of signing of the agreement, the purchase price will be reduced to US$150,000 and the over-riding Royalty will remain unchanged. In the event of production from the Property, the payment of royalties will cease at such time as the Owners have received a total of US$450,000.
The Company intends to undertake a systematic exploration program on the Property in conjunction with work on the nearby Almaden property. The exploration program will include detailed geological mapping, surface geochemical sampling, ground geophysical surveying and drilling. The objective of the program is to identify a near surface, bulk minable gold deposit that could be processed on site or trucked to the nearby Almaden property for processing.
