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Opal Spring U-Mo-Au-Ag Project, Elko County, Nevada
Mexivada owns and controls 21 lode claims (the "U-NV" claims) at Opal Spring / Texas Canyon, located east of the skarn copper-silver-lead-gold mines of the Contact Mining District, near Jackpot, Nevada. The U-NV claims were staked along significant fault systems that transect the area. The Texas Canyon claims controlled by Gold Reef International border the Opal Spring claims to the east. Gold Reef has defined by sampling and geophysics a significant area of uranium-molybdenum-gold mineralization at and near the Prince Uranium Mine, and these mineral systems appear to extend westward into the Mexivada claims area. These uranium prospects have never been drilled, to our knowledge.
The mineralized areas found to date by Mexivada include:
- Northerly-trending faults in the eastern part of the property area cut altered, decalcified, limonitic to hematitic Upper Paleozoic limy sedimentary rocks. These altered rocks were mineralized by one or more gold systems that appear to be Carlin-type or Bald Mountain, Nevada -type in nature. A number of exploration holes were drilled for gold in this area in the 1980's by Tenneco and Gold Fields, but the company has not located any of these data. The company has located a new area of possible Bald Mountain-type gold mineralization here, and will conduct further work here in 2008.
- A west northwest trending regional fault structure, the Transformer Fault, is present in the central part of the Opal Springs claims area, which may also be a structural control on possible Carlin/Meikle-type gold mineralization. Similar west-northwest trending "rift" faults control gold-silver mineralization in Nevada at Jerritt Canyon and the Round Mountain-Jefferson-Gold Junction area, and at the Ocampo Mine in Chihuahua, Mexico. Anomalous gold, silver, arsenic and base metal values have been found by Mexivada at the surface in silica that was fed upward along the Transformer fault structure. Roberts Mountain-type thrust faults with capping Upper Plate sedimentary rocks have been mapped just east of the property boundary. This is the same type of gold setting as in the gold trends situated further west, near Carlin, Nevada. Other possibly similar "Eastern Terrane" gold-mineralized Paleozoic sedimentary rocks recently have been drill-delineated south of Opal Spring at the Long Canyon and Pequop Projects by Fronteer (FRG.TO) and AUEX Ventures Inc. (XAU.V).
- The Opal Spring / Texas Canyon area also contains local high-grade uranium-molybdenum-gold mineralization of probable hypogene vein-type origin, controlled by northeasterly trending faults at and near the Prince Uranium Mine, near a highly differentiated rhyolitic flow dome complex of Tertiary age that contains highly elevated primary values of uranium to 25 ppm U. Gold-silver enriched silica is present at the base of the flow dome complex, opening the possibility for discovery of Midas-type gold-silver vein systems of late Tertiary age, such as Hollister Mine of Great Basin Gold (GBN) and the Midas Mine of Newmont Mining Corp.
Mexivada believes that the Opal Spring / Texas Canyon area may have been hit by three pulses of alteration and mineralization: 1) an early stage Jurassic to Eocene age Bald Mountain- or Carlin-style gold-silver system, 2) late vein-type uranium-molybdenum vein systems of Tertiary (Miocene) age, superimposed on the earlier gold systems, associated with the ending phase of the highly radiogenic Opal Spring Volcanics (Redfern, 1977), and 3) possibly an intermediate age Midas-type gold-silver system formed before the start of the Opal Spring Volcanics period. Mexivada intends to continue its evaluation of this highly mineralized area for gold-silver and uranium-molybdenum deposits in 2008, and will be watching the exploration efforts of its neighbor, Gold Reef International (GRIN.CA)."
Maps & Photos
Click on thumbnail to enlarge
Opal Spring Regional Location Map |
Opal Spring Areal Geology |
Jackpot Regional Geology |
Prince Uranium Mine |
Opal Spring Target |
Altered Miocene Tuffs |
Carlin-Type Alteration? |
Jackpot - Opal Spring Area |
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