BAKER MINE

Overview

The Baker mine consists of a series of steeply dipping, bonanza grade gold-silver quartz veins, and can be best classified as a low-sulphidation epithermal deposit.     

Since the 1980’s, two veins, the ‘A’ and the ‘B’, have been mined by DuPont of Canada and Sable Resources, for a total production of 41,285 ounces of gold, 765,677 ounces of silver and 13,000 kilograms of copper from the Baker mine site.  The true widths of these structures vary from 2.4 to 7.6 metres, with typical grades of 0.5 oz gold, 5 oz silver, and 1% copper per ton.

Geology

The Baker mine site is underlain by volcanic rocks of the Upper Triassic aged Takla group, which have been intruded by, and in places overlain by volcanic and intrusive rocks of the Jurassic aged Toodoggone formation.  The site occurs in a north-west trending, fault bounded block, and has been extensively altered by hydrothermal activity.

Mineralization occurs in discrete quartz, and quartz-carbonate veins, with pyrite, argentite (silver sulphide), chalcopyrite, and electrum being the important ore minerals.  Precious metal mineralization is related to shallow intrusive sills and dikes, which intruded along zones of weakness associated with regional faulting. 

Exploration

On the Baker mine site, 15 mineralized zones have been historically identified, with only two of them (‘A’ and ‘B’ veins) advanced to the production stage.  Exploration efforts have been largely focused on developing near-surface, easily mineable deposits, and are now focused on the Ridge zone. 

The Ridge zone is located within the active mining lease of the Baker mine site, and will be fast-tracked into production upon successful exploration .results.  The Ridge zone was discovered in 1998 by Sable geologists.  The discovery consisted of high grade quartz float among talus, that graded up to 12.6 oz/t gold, and over 300 oz/t silver.  A metallurgical test was conducted on half of a 55 pound sample which yielded assay results of 7.451 oz/t gold and 124 oz/t of silver and 0.29% copper, showed the mineralization to be amenable to the Company’s existing mill and processes. Subsequent work has consisted of trenching, geophysic surveys, and limited diamond drilling.

The 2007 exploration program will consist of an aggressive trenching program, and follow up diamond drilling on the Ridge zone, as well as limited drilling and a re-evaluation the ‘B’ vein to extend the zone of existing mineralization.

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