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Fulstone Project
The property that Auric has acquired
by claim staking can be classified
as an Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG)
exploration target. While there are
no measured resources in the target
area, Whitney & Whitney, Inc.
believes that there is potential for
one or more deposit aggregating up
to 500 million tons based on the
size of large geophysical and
geochemical anomalies within the
target area.
The following table shows mineral
load claims and approximate acreage:
IOCG deposits can be very large as
is demonstrated by the Pumpkin
Hollow IOCG deposit which has a 2009
NI 43-101 measured, indicated and
inferred resource of 929 million
tons of copper ore containing 4.657
million tons of copper at a cutoff
grade of 0.2% copper. This Pumpkin
Hollow resource also contains 1.45
million ounces of gold, 55 million
ounces of silver, 24,000 tons of
molybdenum, and 183 million tons of
iron.
The recently completed preliminary
economic assessment for Pumpkin
Hollow demonstrates that at a
$2.50/lb. copper price, the project
has a $498 million NPV at an 8%
discount with an IRR of 44% and
Capex of $192 million. At a
$3.00/lb. copper price, the
project’s discounted NPV at an 8%
discount increases to $784 million.
Nevada Copper recently obtained
permits to do underground
development and sampling, and has
financing in place to conduct the
development work. On-going drilling
is also being conducted, which is
expanding the measured resource.
The Fulstone property has many
similarities to the Pumpkin Hollow
IOCG deposit. A description of the
Pumpkin Hollow’s geology is detailed
below:
Geology of Pumpkin Hollow
from Nevada Copper
Corporations Website:
The Pumpkin Hollow
deposit is a high grade IOCG
chalcopyrite-magnetite skarn
located along the flanks of
the copper producing
Yerington batholith were the
district wide copper
inventory is over 24 billion
pounds.
The Pumpkin Hollow deposits
are blind, the only surface
expression are hornfels and
un-mineralized skarn. The
deposits were originally
discovered in 1959 by US
Steel Corp. using airborne
magnetics. Follow-up
magnetic surveys and
drilling delineated several
magnetite-rich skarn bodies,
commonly greater than 40%
iron, hosted by Mesozoic
sedimentary and igneous
rocks. Later work by
Anaconda and other companies
outlined copper rich areas
within the system where
drilling intercepted grades
up to 20 % Cu. A recently
completed resource study at
a 0.2% copper cutoff
reported 9.3 billion pounds
of copper, 1.45 million
ounces of gold, and 55
million ounces of silver.
Iron resources at a 20% iron
cutoff total 361 million
tons at a grade of 36%.
Lithologic, alteration and
assay data from this
drilling combined with
re-analysis of old drill
data has defined manto-like
ore bodies and breccia-hosted
controls for high grade
mineralization. Sediments of
the Gardnerville Formation
have been metamorphosed to
pyroxene-garnet hornfels and
later veined and replaced by
epidote-garnet-actinolite-calcite
skarn accompanied by
chalcopyrite, pyrite,
magnetite, and pyrrhotite.
High grades of copper are
found as chalcopyrite filled
fractures in skarn breccia.
Skarn mineralization within
the Mason Valley Limestone
follows the contact of a
large sill of granodiorite
endoskarn. Fine-grain
massive magnetite
mineralization replaces
marble and extends hundreds
of feet into underlying
calcic endoskarn. Sulfides
are disseminated throughout
the magnetite and are
particularly concentrated;
in strata-bound
skarn-breccia zones, at the
endoskarn-marble contact,
and at the front between
marble and magnetite. Local
late stage talc and
extensive chlorite + calcite
+ pyrite veining overprints
the entire system. The
associated intrusive bodies,
sills and dikes, are the
same calc alkaline suite
present in the Yerington
Batholith porphyry deposits.
Strong calcic alteration of
the main stage granodiorite
is widespread with secondary
albite and potassium
feldspar present together
with the same skarn
assemblage seen in the
sedimentary host rocks.
Post-mineral geologic events
include regional folding,
Cretaceous plutonism, and
the deposition of a thick
sequence of Oligocene
ignimbrites. Great Basin
extension has resulted in
district-wide low-angle
normal faults and westward
rotation of pre-Miocene
rocks. The Pumpkin Hollow
deposits are structurally
deeper than the known
porphyry and related skarn
deposits of the district.
The great volume of
magnetite mineralization in
the Pumpkin Hollow skarns is
typical of IOCG deposits.
The Pumpkin Hollow IOCG
deposits are
porphyry-related but formed
at a deeper level than the
other copper deposits in the
district. Locally copper
grades at Pumpkin Hollow
exceed 4% and iron grades
are over 65%. For example in
the E-2 deposit USX hole
KM44 reported 4.2% copper
over a true width of 115’.
In the North deposit USS
hole USX-44 returned 4.54%
copper over a true width of
175’.
To date exploration has
defined five individual
deposits (although with
additional drilling, some of
the deposits will likely
merge) the North, South and
Southeast; open pittable
deposits and the high grade
East and E-2 both
underground deposits. |
Copper Deposits of the Yerington
District
Nevada Copper Corporation’s Pumpkin
Hollow deposit, a high grade IOCG
deposit is located approximately 90
miles southeast of Reno, NV, and
approximately 6 miles southeast of
the city of Yerington, and 8 miles
southeast of the Yerington open pit.
Pumpkin Hollow is located at the
southeast corner of the included
satellite image:
Fulstone Project Similarities to
Pumpkin Hollow
The land position being assembled by
Auric contains documented copper,
gold, silver, zinc, and iron
(magnetite) mineralization hosted
within Jurassic-Triassic volcanics
and sediments that have been
intruded by a large Jurassic age
intrusive that exhibits
characteristics of disseminated
porphyry copper mineralization;
sulfide bearing skarns with
magnetite; and sodic-calcic
alteration typical of porphyry
copper deposits. The gold and silver
in IOCG deposits is typically
associated with the base metals
copper and zinc. In these deposits
the gold is in the “Auric” molecular
form in combination with base
metals.
The Fulstone Project area has
several aeromagnetic anomalies that
trend favorably with well developed
north-south, northwest-southeast,
and northeast-southwest faulting.
Unpublished work performed by
Whitney & Whitney, Inc. early in
2000 resulted in the discovery of a
significant induced polarization
(IP) anomaly that trends
sub-parallel to a
northwest-southeast trending
aeromagnetic anomaly. The above
noted geophysical anomaly is bounded
by northwest-southeast trending
faults and is intersected by north
trending and northeast-southwest
trending faults. The IP anomaly has
been traced for over 10,000 feet and
ranges from 1,000 to 4,000 feet wide
at a 40 mili-second magnitude
outline on plan maps. Individual IP
dipole-dipole survey lines show
conductors exceeding 1,000 feet in
thickness, and a chargeability
reading greater than 60 mili-seconds.
In the 2010 second half Auric
purchased a data package that
contains exploration data obtained
during the early 1970s, that extends
the IP anomaly approximately 8,000
feet to the north. This older IP
survey reflects a conductor with
chargeability values greater than 40
mili-seconds and resistivity values
that suggest the presence of
sulfides associated with limestones
at depths from 300 to 1200 feet.
Geochemical sampling over both IP
anomalies has identified coincident
anomalous copper-gold-zinc
mineralization.
A hole drilled by Exxon in the late
1960s, on trend with the IP anomaly
encountered 80 feet of 0.40% copper
at a 400 foot depth. At that time
the grade and the price of copper
were too low to meet their
objectives… now these grades and
copper over $3.00 per pound are
attractive, as seen by recent
exploration activity in the
Yerington district.
The Yerington Mining District is
Favorably Located in Nevada’s Walker
Lane
The Yerington Mining District is
located within the mineral laden
Walker Lane Fault System (WLFS). In
a general sense the WLFS extends
along the eastern flank of the
Sierra Nevada mountain range from
the northeasterly trending Garlock-Las
Vegas Fault system near the Mojave
Desert in southern California, and
extends 500 miles northwesterly into
south-central Oregon.
The WLFS is located at the juncture
of two contrasting tectonic styles,
the Sierra Nevada and the Basin and
Range. The WLFS is a complex fault
zone with both extensional and
strike-slip fault movements.
Numerous mineral deposits have
formed within the complex WLFS.
These deposits range from historic
million ounce bonanza grade gold and
silver camps such as the Comstock
Lode, Tonopah, and Goldfields; small
epithermal precious and base metals
vein deposits, larger tonnage
disseminated gold deposits which
include Paradise Peak and Beatty, to
a number of larger porphyries
including Anaconda Mining Company’s
Yerington Pit which produced 875,000
tons of copper, and Anaconda’s Hall
Molybdenum mine outside Tonopah
which produced approximately 50
million tons of molybdenum ore
between 1982 and 1991.
Auric’s personnel have extensive
experience exploring the Walker
Lane, especially in northwest
Nevada, including the advancement of
the Borealis Mine by Whitney &
Whitney, Inc. under the direction of
Dr. John Whitney, President. Dr.
Whitney is a member of the Borealis
owner group which acquired the
property in 1977. Between 1980 and
1991 the Borealis mine produced over
625,000 ounces of gold. The Borealis
mine is now under lease to Gryphon
Gold Corp which has been exploring
the 23 square mile gold bearing
volcanic hosted high sulfidation
system at the mine site. Gryphon has
identified 1.4 million ounces of
Measured & Indicated gold resources,
and 1.1 million ounces of Inferred
gold resources and has secured
permits for a heap leach operation.
Gryphon recently obtained financing
to put the Borealis mine back into
production and is managing a “fast
track” construction path to obtain
gold production in the fourth
quarter 2011.
Mining Company Development
Activities in the Yerington
District:
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