Gold & Silver Mining Exploration Company
The Clara Gold Project is located on approximately 480 acres of mining claims in the Santa Maria Mining District in La Paz County, Arizona. There are 24 lode mining claims on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”). Access is obtained by Swansea Rd and Lincoln Ranch Road, which proceed approximately 15 miles north from Arizona Highway 72 at Bouse, Arizona.
The Clara Gold property consists of a Tertiary age sandstone and conglomerate upper plate which has been detached over the top of a lower plate of Precambrian age quartz-feldspar-chlorite gneiss. The gneiss has been intensely brecciated along both the detachment surface and where it has been cut by high angle structures. Clara has exposures of gold and copper in the upper plate, developed by numerous shafts and adits on Gold Hill. Mineralization is dominantly free gold (disseminated and leaf form) and micron gold, along with massive or fracture filling specular hematite, chrysacolla, malachite, barite, fluorite, quartz, calcite, chlorite and manganese oxides. The high angle structures appear to have served as conduits tapping a large deep seated copper / gold system.
Underground sampling by Nevada Pacific, a previous owner, averaged .091 ounces per ton gold, and included a section of continuous chip / channel samples that averaged 0.162 ounces per ton gold over 85 feet. Nevada Pacific’s initial drilling included intervals of 45 feet @ 0.097 ounces per ton gold and 15 feet @ 0.089 ounces per ton gold. The Company intends to conduct initial sampling to validate Nevada Pacific’s reported results, following which the Company will attempt to develop drill targets at the property.
Clara Exploration History
Exploration materials are available dating back to 1982, when the property was originally acquired by American Gold Minerals Corp., which assigned their interest to Goldsil Mining & Milling, Inc. Goldsil drilled 16 holes and encountered values of up to 0.8 ounces gold per ton (upper plate) and up to 0.10 ounces gold per ton in the gneiss (lower plate), with a resource estimate of up to 400,000 tons of mineralized rock. Goldsil drilled 14 more holes in the south central portion of Section 3 (south of Moreau Hill). A 1986 report described E / W high-angle faults dipping 5 to 10 degrees to the SSE, weak silicification extending into the (lower plate) gneiss and stockwork silica veinlets in the gneiss close to the contact with a breccias zone 5 to 30 feet thick.
In 1986 Phelps Dodge drilled 18 air hammer holes and reported consistent low-grade gold values in Section 35 (Clara Mine area), with estimates of 2,000,000 tons of mineralized rock grading 0.1ppm gold. Work by Gold Fields in 1990 and 1992 was intended to investigate magnetic anomalies and described NE trending structures along the east side of Moreau Hill, as well as the possibility of a lower detachment surface. Some of the gold observed was described as coarse, with detectable flakes, leading to consideration of the possibility of gravity concentration.
Nevada Pacific acquired the property in 1997. Their surface sampling returned gold values of up to 0.652 ounces gold per ton and copper values of up to 20% copper. Underground sampling returned up to 0.512 ounces gold per ton with copper values up to 2.59%. The 36 samples taken by Nevada Pacific averaged 0.091 ounces gold per ton and included a section of continuous chip / channel samples which averaged 0.162 ounces gold per ton over 85 feet. Nevada Pacific then drilled nine holes at Moreau Hill, which included intercepts of 45 feet grading 0.097 ounces gold per ton and 15 feet grading 0.089 ounces gold per ton. The property was then optioned by Echo Bay, which unsuccessfully attempted to drill a barren covered area to the south (not included in the current Clara Gold Project) on the basis of biogeochemical sampling. The project vendors acquired the property from Cordex, and there is an underlying 2% net smelter returns royalty payable to Cordex from the property’s production.
Regional Geology
The regional geological setting is a major east / west detachment fault (called the “Buckskin / Rawhide Detachment Fault”). Mineralization is found in quartz veins and breccia zones hosted by the upper plate and lower plates. Detachment fault deposits were first recognized as a separate form of gold deposit in the 1980’s. The best example of an Arizona detachment gold deposit is probably the Copperstone Gold deposit, which like Clara is in the highly extended Western Arizona terrane, as well as in the “Walker Lane” gold trend. Cyprus Gold mined the approximately 500,000 ounce Copperstone open pit gold resource during the 1980’s, and another mining company is presently assessing the feasibility of mining the underground gold resource at Copperstone. Unlike the upper plate Copperstone deposit, gold mineralization at Clara is found in both the upper plate and in the lower plate, as well as in the fault contact area itself. The gold is frequently found in breccias zones with quartz and copper mineralization, which at the surface is frequently in the form of blue – green chrysocolla or green malachite. Also associated with the gold are iron oxides (including hematite), which makes magnetic anomalies potential exploration targets.
Mineralization at the Clara Gold Mines
There are dozens of mine shafts, adits, open pits and other mine workings at the Clara Gold Project. The area was historically developed by the Clara Consolidated Gold & Copper Mining Co. in the early 1900’s, and is comprised of two groups of mining claims, called the Clara Mine in the northeast portion of the property and the Moreau Mine in the southwest portion of the property. The property is comprised of 12 unpatented lode claims at the Clara Gold Mine, 6 unpatented lode mining claims at the Moreau Gold Mine, and 6 unpatented mining claims covering mineralized ground between the two mines, making the property a contiguous group of 24 unpatented lode mining claims (480 acres).
Clara Gold Mine
In the area of the open cut at the southwest end of the Clara Gold Mine (McClelland Lode Claim) there is mineralization along the Buckskin / Rawhide detachment fault. Brecciated volcanic rocks above a 1 to 2 meter thick gouge zone contain chalcopyrite, bornite and relict pyrite cubes. Chrysocolla, malachite and selenite are present in fractures. Rocks below the fault are shattered, silicified mylonitic gneisses with fractures containing drusy quartz (1-2 mm crystals), chrysocolla, and specular hematite. Irregular veins of chrysocolla and quartz-hematite-chrysocolla, up to 1 cm thick, cross cut brecciated lower plate rocks. Drusy quartz fills fractures in and along the actual fault zone, and apparently post-dates fault movement. Hematite below the fault in breccias-gouge is late to post-fracturing.
Further to the northeast in the vicinity of the shaft at the northern end of the Klapetsky claim, there is continued mineralization along the Buckskin / Rawhide detachment fault. Shattered chloritic breccias below the fault contain malachite – chrysocolla-hematite-drusy quartz in fractures. Late-stage selenite fills fractures in the upper plate.
At the northeast corner of the Clara Gold Mine in the vicinity of the historic mining camp (Josephine, Wilson and Hazel Lode Claims), many of the shafts, adits and open pit workings are located along and just above the Buckskin / Rawhide detachment fault. Highly fractured upper plate rocks contain chrysocolla (copper oxide) on fracture surfaces. Zones up to 50 cm thick contain quartz, calcite, hematite and manganese oxides. Hematite (iron oxide) staining is pervasive. Mineralized zones typically follow northeast – striking, southeast – dipping shears. The host is silicified and shattered Tertiary sandstone and possibly Tertiary volcanic or hypabyssal rocks.
Moreau Gold Mine
On the northwest flank of Moreau Hill, chrysocolla-malachite-quartz-calcite-botryoidal hematite-silicified hematite is found above and adjacent to the Buckskin / Rawhide detachment fault along gently dipping fractures in Tertiary volcanic breccias. On the southwest flank of Moreau Hill, there are underground workings in crushed rocks along the buckskin / Rawhide detachment fault. Fractures in upper plate silicic Tertiary volcanic or hypabyssal rocks contain hematite, chrysocolla and malachite.
East of Moreau Hill, there is brecciated conglomerate with silica-hematite matrix located above and next to the Buckskin / Rawhide detachment fault. Gently dipping fractures contain much limonite stain and red to black hematite. Sparse gypsum is also present. Further east of Moreau Hill, in the area between the Moreau and Clara Gold Mines, there are adits in crushed rocks along the Buckskin / Rawhide detachment fault. Chrysocolla – malachite-hematite-barite are present in fractures in the fault zone. Another adit 60 meters to the northwest is along an upper plate shear zone containing chrysocolla-malachite-quartz-hematite with quartz occurring primarily as fine-grained coliform overgrowths on other minerals.
THIS IS A VERY BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THIS EXPLORATION PROPERTY. DETAILED OVERVIEWS ARE BEING PREPARED BY AN INDEPENDENT GEOLOGIST ALONGSIDE THE COMPANY’S MANAGEMENT. CERTAIN INFORMATION HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY EXCLUDED FROM THIS OVERVIEW AS IT IS VIEWED AS “COMMERCIALLY SENSITIVE” FOR VARIOUS REASONS.
GNCC CAPITAL, INC. HAS OBTAINED THE CERTAIN OF THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION FROM THE PUBLIC RECORDS OF STATE GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES AND IS SUBMITTING THEM IN THE INTEREST OF FULL DISCLOSURE. UNDUE IMPORTANCE SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN TO THESE MATERIALS, AS THEY ARE OF AN HISTORICAL NATURE AND MAY PERTAIN TO MINING PROPERTIES IN ADDITION TO THOSE PRESENTLY CONTROLLED BY GNCC CAPITAL, INC. THESE MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY BY GNCC CAPITAL, INC. AS TO THEIR CONTENTS.
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