Unity Project Highlights
In July 2007, the Company acquired an option to earn a 60% joint venture interest in the Unity project from Unity GoldSilver Mines, Inc. To earn its interest, the Company must incur US$1 M in expenditures (US$1,021,481 has been spent to date and this condition has been met) and complete a feasibility study by February 28, 2013. Exploration began in July 2008, with a 3,600 m drilling program focused on testing the lateral and down-dip extensions of historically very high-grade (30 to 150 g/t gold) and very extensive quartz veins. A striking feature of this project is the lateral extent of the gold-rich narrow quartz vein system. While individual veins range from a few cm to often over 1 m in thickness, they can be traced for hundreds to thousands of metres along strike and all occur within an area of over 4 square km. The goal of exploration is to confirm the extension of the gold-rich veins and determine whether it is possible to mine them again, using an existing 1,600 m long adit.
Property History
The Unity project consists of 8 patented claims and 38 unpatented claims, all contiguous and covering 756 acres (306 hectares). It is located near the town of Warren in central Idaho, 80 km north of McCall, a community of 3,000 people where all required services are available. A well maintained gravel road links Warren to McCall.
The project includes the Unity Mine which produced 100,000 ounces of gold from three gold-rich quartz veins at grades of 30 to 150 g/t during the early 20th century. The mine was closed in 1942 as a war measure and it has been dormant since. Gold was recovered exclusively by gravity, with recoveries estimated at over 80%. No cyanide was ever used in the milling process. An additional one million ounces of gold was extracted from extensive placer gold deposits around the mine. The Unity Mine vein system is probably a significant source of the placer gold, and the significant placer deposits may be indicative of a large mineralizing system in the area. A fully permitted 125 ton per day gravity mill in good working condition is available 2 kilometers from the Unity mine portal. The mill is not in operation at the moment.
No drilling has ever been recorded on the project and all previous exploration efforts were conducted through trenching and underground drifting along the veins. There are strong geological indications that significant mineralization remains in place along the 3 principal veins already exposed by old workings (either laterally or down-dip). Furthermore, many other gold bearing quartz veins parallel to or cutting the main vein systems remain to be explored.
Work Program
The first phase of work at Unity was completed at the end of 2008 and involved a 1,000 m surface drill program which tested the lateral and down-dip extensions of the very high grade Little Giant and Rescue gold veins. Results were reported in a press release dated March 27, 2009. Despite the confirmation of the presence of gold bearing veins, the results were not conclusive and the main gold-rich vein was not tested due to faulting. Subject to the availability of funds, the Company intends to carry out a follow-up drill program targeting the gold-rich veins at depth in order to try to determine the economic viability of re-opening the Unity Mine. The program may be carried out in the summer of 2012.
|