
Click here to view map |
Gold Summit’s Blue Sphinx project is situated in the historic Bovard District, approximately 30 kilometers south of Kennecott’s Rawhide mine within the Walker Lane structural province of Nevada. The Bovard District produced about $360,000 in gold and silver from 1908 to 1930, principally from the Gold Pen and Bovard (Blue Sphinx) mines. The silver to gold ratio of these ores was approximately 16:1. These early mining operations focused on following, from surface discoveries, steeply plunging shoots of extremely high grade or “bonanza” ore, reportedly with grades as high as $8,000 per ton at a gold price of $20. Additional shoots were discovered while drifting along the strike of the veins, but thousands of tons of “low grade” quartz vein material, ranging from one to fifteen (average of three) grams per ton gold, were put on the waste dumps. Five thousand tons of this material were transported off the claims in 1980, from which about 500 ounces of gold were leached. |
Gold Summit acquired a land position at Blue Sphinx by optioning claim blocks from three existing land owners in the District. The Gold Pen mine area is subject to a lease-option agreement with Hot Springs Gold Corp. Modest annual cash payments are deductible from a US$250,000 purchase option for a 100% interest subject to a 3% NSR royalty with a further option to buy down to 1% for a payment of US$3,000,000. The Blue Sphinx (Bovard) mine is held under a lease-option agreement from Nevada Eagle Resources, LLC. Modest annual cash payments are deductible from the purchase option price of US$250,000; thereafter a 3% NSR production royalty applies with an option to buy out 2% for a cash payment of US$3,000,000. Century Gold LLC owns a block of 75 unpatented mining claims that encompasses the other two claim blocks. In October 2003 Gold Summit entered into a purchase/option agreement with Century Gold that allows Gold Summit to acquire a 100% interest in these claims for a consideration of 200,000 Gold Summit common shares issued over a period of three years.
Gold Summit’s work to date combines new geologic mapping with a compilation of previous work, including past drilling programs. This new work has outlined a mile-long target zone along the Nevada Rand-Blue Sphinx fault, stretching from just south of the Blue Sphinx shaft to just north of the Golden Pen mine. There are other structures within the claim block that have associated hydrothermal alteration with weaker surface geochemistry that may develop into drill targets with additional work. Alteration assemblages mapped to date suggest that gold mineralization in the known workings is high in the hydrothermal system. Drilling to date has been almost entirely restricted to the upper 100 meters of the vein system, and directly around the Golden Pen and Bovard mine workings. In the past, mining focused on extremely high grade plunging shoots encountered while drifting along the strike of the veins and in fact put thousands of tons of lower grade (three to fifteen grams per ton gold) quartz vein material on the waste dumps. This material was transported off the claims and leached in the 1980s. Previous reverse circulation (RC) drilling intersected spotty gold mineralization around the edges of the historic workings, but several core holes drilled beneath the Bovard shaft in the late 1970s intersected 10-40 meters of 1.0-2.0 g/t gold, including several 1-2 meter intercepts exceeding 3.0 g/t gold. RC holes in the immediate vicinity produced very spotty one meter intervals of 1.0 g/t or less. Underground mapping and sampling of the Gold Pen workings in 2005 by Gold Summit identified a reversal of dip from east to west in the lowest levels of the mine. This change in dip, combined with elevated gold values and increasing thickness of quartz veining represents a structurally permissive target that was not tested by previous explorers, who generally tested around the edges of the high grade shoots in the existing underground workings. Gold Summit’s drill program at Gold Pen will focus on testing below the workings where the vein thickens and the structure changes and even reverses dip, followed by step out drilling at depth along strike.
Gold Summit’s has ten permitted drill sites in the Gold Pen and Bovard areas; timing of drilling will depend on overall priorities for funds and staff in 2008. |