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Introduction
The Dry Gulch project is located along the world-class Carlin gold trend in Nevada. The project area is well-positioned geologically and offers the opportunity to discover a sediment-hosted Carlin-type gold deposit.
Location
The Dry Gulch project lies 9 miles north of Carlin, Nevada, within the Carlin trend, host to several of the world's largest gold deposits, with estimated production and reserves exceeding 100 million ounces of gold. The property is approximately 6 miles northeast of the Gold Quarry gold deposits (>15 Moz production and reserves) and 6 miles southeast of the northern Carlin trend deposits (e.g., Carlin and West Leeville deposit areas: >9.7 Moz of production and reserves). The 100%- owned property consists of approximately 3.5 square miles.
Geologic Setting
The project covers an uplifted structural block containing thinly-bedded, carbonaceous silty limestones similar to units that host the productive gold systems of the Carlin trend. The carbonate units at Dry Gulch are surrounded by shales and thinly-bedded quartzites that have been mapped as part of the regional upper-plate, or western-facies, sequence. The upper plate generally lies above lower-plate carbonate units that host the bulk of gold mineralization on the Carlin trend, although gold does locally occur in upper-plate units similar to those at Dry Gulch. Several miles northeast of the project, favorable lower-plate carbonate rocks are exposed below limestone-rich upper-plate rocks similar to those at Dry Gulch, indicating that favorable lower-plate carbonates probably lie at relatively shallow depths beneath the project. Alternatively, the carbonate-rich sequence at Dry Gulch may be part of the Mary's Mountain Sequence, which also lies directly above lower-plate mineralized rocks in and around the Gold Quarry district and is locally mineralized. Three miles southwest of the project, a deep drill hole encountered the lower-plate Roberts Mountains formation limestone at a depth of 1,615 feet; the Roberts is a major host to gold mineralization along the Carlin trend and elsewhere.
Structural analysis, proprietary geophysical data and remote sensing imagery indicate that the project area lies along a northwest-trending fault zone marking the continuation of important northwest-trending ore-controlling structures in the northern Carlin trend (e.g., the Castle Reef and Vivian Gulch faults). The northwest-trending fault zone is also parallel to the Good Hope fault, a major ore-controlling structure in the Gold Quarry district to the southwest. Further, northeast-trending structures crossing the project lie along extensions of important ore-controlling faults at Gold Quarry (e.g., Deep Sulfide Feeder fault).
The target is also surrounded by Late Eocene (38 Ma) intrusive centers: Swales Mountain to the northeast, the Welches Canyon - Emigrant Pass magmatic enter to the southwest, and a small possible Late Eocene intrusion to the southeast. Sediment-hosted gold deposits of the Carlin trend formed during this magmatic event. The project's setting marginal to, but not closely adjacent or within the Eocene intrusions, is considered favorable for the formation of Carlin-type deposits. Studies of regional heat flow by MDRU1 indicate that the project area has experienced Late Eocene heating that typifies productive regions of the Carlin trend and Jerritt Canyon district to the northeast.
Previous Exploration
No drilling had been completed at Dry Gulch prior to Redstar's involvement. In 2008, two vertical drillholes were completed to depths of 1,500 (DG1) and 1,565 feet (DG2). The two holes are two miles apart. Hole DG1 was drilled near the center of the area of exposed Paleozoic rocks away from the northwest-trending southwestern margin of the uplift block, a structural margin considered a key exploration target. Hole DG2 was drilled along this favorable structural margin near an intersecting northeast-trending fault. Neither hole encountered anomalous gold, significant hydrothermal alteration or obvious lower-plate carbonate units. However, integration of new detailed gravity data obtained by Redstar with other geologic information indicates that additional targets remain untested. Further, the occurrence of lower-plate carbonates in the drill hole to the southwest (see Geologic Setting) is considered favorable for continued exploration along the margin of the basement uplift.
* MDRU: Mineral Deposits Research Unit of the University of British Columbia, Canada
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