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Golden Ridge - Nevada/California border
Overview
The Golden Ridge project is a district-scale bonanza gold vein target located in the Warner Mountains approximately 30 miles northeast of Alturas in Modoc County, California. Golden Predator has secured the largest consolidated land position of the entire former High Grade mine district ever held by one company, with gold-bearing mineralization outcropping over three miles of strike length and one mile of width.
The High Grade (Hoag) District was discovered in the late 1800's and saw an initial boom between 1910 and 1918. More recent exploration included shallow drilling concentrated upon defining low grade disseminated Au mineralization amenable to surface bulk mining from the 1980's to 1998 by companies such as Atlas Minerals, Kennecott, FMC, Nord and Golden Phoenix. Newmont Exploration conducted the first evaluation of deeper bonanza vein potential in 2001 and 2002, completing district wide geological, geochemical and geophysical surveys, but only completed 3 drill holes of a 23 hole program prior to termination of their high-grade bonanza vein program. The district has been tested by over 114; mostly shallow vertical drill holes, concentrated upon the two areas where potential open pit disseminated Au mineralization were defined. Some of the higher grade intercepts from this drilling include 20 feet at 0.165, 40 feet at 0.102, 55 feet of 0.103, and 50 feet of 0.051 oz/ton Au. These drilling programs culminated in a historic gold resource estimate of 1.23 Mt @ 0.036 oz/t Au at a 0.01 oz/t cut-off (Taylor, 1998) calculated by Golden Phoenix Mines yielding a mineral inventory of 44,640 ounces Au*
Golden Predator has secured the rights to the previously drilled areas in the central portion of the district, and has recently added to the land holding covering previously under-explored areas of the district where the largest producing mines during the early part of the century are located.
The Golden Ridge project is a volcanic-hosted high-level epithermal gold system that outcrops over three miles of length and a mile of width in the Warner Mountains, an area of early Tertiary intermediate volcanics intruded by and capped with younger Miocene-age bimodal rhyolites and basalts. Mineralization in the district, including gold, appears spatially and genetically related to the later, highly siliceous eruptive phases and associated phreatic activity. Emplacement of rhyolite domes and mineralization has occurred along a northeast-trending structural zone that is the locus of intense silicic and argillic alteration with associated gold and silver mineralization.
Gold and silver are found within several styles of mineralization at Golden Ridge. Gold occurs in high angle quartz-adularia veins and vein stockworks, as stratabound disseminated mineralization within tuffaceous beds and in hydrothermal breccias resulting from explosive disruption of the ore-forming system. The producing veins and vein-filled structures within the district are found along northeast or crosscutting northwest trends. The veins have been traced down through the rhyolite domes and tuffs into the underlying andesitic units were exposed in the southern part of the district. Examples from surface sampling by company geologists of material indicative of the favorable vein-style mineralization at Golden Ridge are in the table below.
| Golden Ridge Project Rock Chip Sampling Assay Highlights |
| Sample Description |
Au
gm/t |
Ag
gm/t |
| Sunshine Adit - banded 4-10" quartz-adularia vein (QAV) in silicified rhyolite breccias (Bx) |
9.35 |
32 |
| Sunshine Adit - dump sample of banded QAV |
24.6 |
60 |
| Sunshine East Shaft banded QAV with waxy green quartz |
12.3 |
174 |
| Sunshine East Shaft - Bx & vuggy quartz vein (QV) with pyrite and dark sulfides |
29.1 |
478 |
| Sunshine Ridgetop Shaft - QAV with waxy green quartz & Fe-oxides |
97 |
695 |
| Sunshine Adit - dump late stage Mn-oxides coating white chalcedonic quartz |
27.3 |
80 |
| W Sunshine shaft - stockpile banded QAV |
28.6 |
24 |
| SW Sunshine shaft - vein from stockpile |
23.9 |
196 |
| Sunshine Central shaft - gossanous fault Bx with goethite-jarosite-hematite- Mn-ox |
18.9 |
19 |
| Sunshine Central shaft - dump face below shaft |
15.2 |
16 |
| Lower W Sunshine trench - dark gray silicified Bx with very fine grained sulfides disseminated at vein/fault intersection |
13.7 |
17 |
| SW Consolidated Shaft - dump coarse crystalline QV in Fe-ox stained argillized andesite |
4.92 |
2 |
| Klondike Middle Adit - banded quartz-pyrite vein in rhyolite Bx |
4.57 |
4 |
| E Consolidated Shaft - vuggy, waxy green QAV |
3.81 |
2.46 |
| Sunshine adit - QAV |
39.1 |
99 |
| Sunshine adit - QAV |
129 |
78 |
| Sunshine Adit - 2.0 ft chip sample of QAV in silicified rhyolite Bx |
9.34 |
6 |
| Upper Bluebell - 4.5 ft chip sample o Fe-ox stained Bx w/ QAV stockwork |
5.33 |
4.47 |
Golden Predator's exploration program will focus on targeting the high grade (>0.2 oz/t Au) bonanza vein style mineralization with gold grades to support trucking ore to a central milling facility.
The high frequency of strongly anomalous to bonanza grade assays in surface samples across the property is striking. Primary exploration targets are where the level of erosion appears deeper on the vein systems, such as at the historic Sunshine mine, where multiple >0.5 oz/t Au surface samples in quartz-adularia veining indicate potential for a shallow, high-grade deposit. Several other prospect areas also have indications of shallow ore shoots, consisting of high grade pockets. Such indications include isolated structural features within the veins, such as inflections or changes in dip, and vein intersections. Bonanza grade deposits are postulated to occur at points of principal structural intersections defined by quartz-sulfide veins and silicified breccias which exhibit multiple phases of ground preparation, brecciation, with veins and replacements of gold-bearing silica. Release of pressure caused by the boiling of the hydrothermal ore-bearing solutions resulted in the deposition of the gold mineralization. Explosive brecciation of the vein wall rock resulted in rapid de-pressuring of the system, fluid boiling and precious metal deposition. The vein and adjacent wall rock textures at Golden Ridge illustrate that this process occurred in multiple episodes over the history of the mineralizing system.
Secondary targets on the property include potential for bonanza vein mineralization under cover and also at depth beneath historic targets. It is common for bonanza districts to have low-grade, disseminated to stockwork-style deposits associated with them, particularly if the upper levels of the system were not removed by erosion. This style of mineralization has been the focus of historic drilling programs where bulk mineable, open pit deposits were the targets. The extensive distribution of the high-level, stockwork-related gold mineralization supports the concept of more constricted gold-bearing veins at depth. Several high grade intercepts within the historic drilling at Golden Ridge may represent high-level 'leakage' of the mineralizing system and provide a tool for identifying bonanza vein targets at depth.
Golden Predator's 2008 work program included an aerial survey flown in late summer, used to generate a detailed topographic base map and color photo mosaic to cover the entire district. These products were in-turn used as base maps for a 3 month surface mapping and sampling campaign by a University of Texas-EP Ph.D. student focusing on the source and transport of gold mineralization at the Golden Ridge district for a thesis. This surface sampling and mapping has generated additional vein targets for drilling.
Ongoing work will include the construction of 3D geologic models that will be followed in 2009 by phased drill testing of the most significant gold anomalies. Golden Predator has begun a systematic compilation of historic exploration work and is generating a digital database to advance 3D drill targeting work. Drill permitting is underway, with a plan of operations for the central portion of the district, and applications for drill sites in the north of the property in progress for the 2009 field season.
* Non NI43-101 Compliant. Neither Golden Predator nor its QP have done the work necessary to verify the classification of this resource therefore it should not be relied upon by investors.
Maps & Photos
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NEVADA/USA
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