Golden Trend (NV)

Location

Golden Trend is a promising early-stage exploration property located in the heart of the third largest gold producing region in the world. It lies within the highly prolific Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend in Eureka County, Nevada, approximately 300 miles northeast of Reno.

The Pipeline, Cortez, Horse Canyon and Buckhorn gold mines are all within a few miles of the Golden Trend property, and Placer Dome's newest discovery, the plus one million ounce Pediment deposit, is only five kilometres to the north.

Overview

In August 1996, an initial group of 80 claims was optioned from Rubicon Resources of Sparks, Nevada. An additional 10 claims were staked by Rubicon in 1998 and added to the option agreement. These 90 claims are subject to a 3% net smelter royalty, of which 2% is purchasable. Under the option agreement, J-Pacific Gold pays the annual Bureau of Land Management and county fees, and makes annual advanced royalty payments to Rubicon.

J-Pacific Gold recently staked an additional 21 claims, enlarging the property to 111 lode mining claims. The option agreement and all claims are in good standing.

History

The Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend is defined by a northwest-southeast alignment of operating mines and undeveloped gold deposits. Several are world class, multimillion ounce deposits with Newmont Mining Corporation, Placer Dome Mines Inc. and Homestake Mining Company as operators.

The deposits of the Trend are generally sediment hosted, and are referred to as "Carlin" type. The host Paleozoic carbonate rocks are mineralized where they have been cut by high angle faults which acted as conduits for the gold-bearing hydrothermal fluids. Recent dramatic discoveries of high grade gold deposits in these "feeders" and associated structures have significantly expanded the potential of these environments.

The Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend appears to be controlled by early, deep-seated structures such as the Cortez Fault, which have been reactivated and offset by basin and range tectonism. The host carbonate rock sequence has been locally uplifted by these structures and exposed in windows through the plane of the regionally extensive Roberts Mountains Thrust Fault. These "lower plate" rocks, which are the primary gold bearing units, are overlain by a mainly clastic sequence referred to as "upper plate" rocks. Alteration associated with these sediment hosted deposits is subtle but definitive. The rocks are variously silicified, decarbonatized, bleached and commonly argillized. Gold, arsenic, and, to a lesser extent, antimony and mercury are excellent geochemical indicators.

The property is cut along its entire western side by the Cortez Fault and associated structures, and is interpreted to be bounded on the east by the northern Nevada rift zone, creating an uplifted block of stratigraphy which brings the lower plate rocks closer to the surface. Roberts Mountain Trust lower plate rocks are exposed within a mile of the north side of the claim group, and are projected under shallow cover under much of the property. Exploration by J-Pacific Gold (then Claimstaker Resources) in 1998 and 1999 identified significant coincident gold and arsenic soil geochemical values correlated with high angle structures. Geochemically anomalous gold and arsenic in rock, and occasionally anomalous copper values, have been identified in various geologic settings.

To follow-up on this preliminary geologic, geochemical, and geophysical work, a small program of nine shallow reverse circulation holes was undertaken on this sizable 111 claim property. Analyses from the drilling produced values in excess of 3,000 ppm arsenic and 100 ppb gold. An area of silicification was identified, which may be associated with a mineralized porphyritic intrusive system. The strongly altered intrusive, and the gold-arsenic mineralization appears to be spatially related to a splay off the Cortez Fault, itself a prominent structural feature in major gold deposits nearby.

Technical Reports