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Target: Rose Mine is a Bonanza grade silver system with over a kilometer strike length on the edge of the pediment SW of the Ruby Hill Mining District. Drill targets include the intersection of bedded and steeply emplaced structural jasperoids running multi-ounce Ag. Collapse breccias running multi-ounce silver also offer targets. The stratigraphy of shallowly dipping Devonian limestone does not provide sufficient stratigraphic information and some deeper holes may reveal favorable stratigraphy at depth. Lastly, a zone to the SE with low grade disseminated gold has been found and requires further testing. Multiple samples running hundreds of ppb gold have been found. In addition, Piedmont Mining drilled a hole with 185 feet of 209 ppb gold and 2.96 g/t silver.
Ownership: The claims are owned 50:50 by Mountain Gold and GeoCorp. GeoCorp is a related party to AuEx who have a lease on the claims.
History: The early history of Rose Mine is obscure. The county report Bulletin 64 Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (Plate 1 prospect 119) lists the prospect as a copper mine. There are some secondary Cu oxides but it may have been a scam to mine the silver during the war when only mining of strategic elements such as copper were allowed. In the 1990's Richard Bedell (current Director of AuEx) sampled it for Homestake Mining and in 2 days acquired 79 samples of jasperoid that averaged 6 opt Ag. Two years after leaving Homestake Richard staked the ground with partner Tom Callicrate. The partners leased the Rose Mine to Piedmont Mining who drilled a few holes through 2007. Subsequently the partners offered the property to AuEx and Tom Callicrate struck a deal with AuEx to lease the property.
Geology: The stratigraphic sequence consists of undivided Devonian limestones that dip shallowly to the east, towards the pediment. Regional mapping by Alvis Lisenbee in the Eureka Mining District considers these units as part of a series of detachments that slid off the Prospect Mountain culmination during Upper Paleozoic thrusting. Mineralization occurs in both bedded and structurally emplaced jasperoid. In addition dissolution collapse breccias run multi-ounce silver. Also a disseminated gold zone with elevated zinc in bleached limestone occurs in the southern area of the claim block. Recently a new zone 1.2 km to the north has a Au assay of 411 ppb.
The first outcrop sampling of the area included 79 samples that averaged 6 opt Ag with no appreciable gold. The samples were all taken from bedded and high angle (structurally emplaced) jasperoid some of which returned bonanza grade Ag. Zones of zebra dolomite texture associated with dissolution collapse breccia suggest drill targets that should yield thicker zones of shallow mineralization.
Later a bleached zone 200 m wide going into the pediment was found to contain hundreds of ppb gold. Recent work has shown a strong gold zonation toward the pediment coincident with high Zn. A shear zone on the edge of the pediment assayed at 577 ppb Au and 11 opt Ag. A light drill program by Piedmont Mining in 2007 found a zone in this area of 20 feet of 3.38 g/t Ag and 0.910 g/t Au. Another hole hit 185 feet of 2.96 g/t Ag and 209 ppb Au. There appears to be a disseminated gold system in addition to the multi-ounce silver that dominates the property.
Piedmont's drill program did not test the core area of intersecting bedded and structural jasperoids with dissolution collapse breccias. Drill targets can immediately test the primary target and others already defined by surface sampling. Due to the shallow dip there is always the possibility of other favorable units at depth.
Given the large area of high grade Ag and a distinct disseminated Au target emerging there are logical drill targets to start with. However given the extensive pediment, and the contrast presented between both silica and sulfides with the carbonate host, a geophysical survey could quickly define a major ore body.
AuEx Ventures, Inc. is a TSX listed precious metals exploration company that has a current portfolio of over twenty properties in Nevada, two projects in Argentina and one project in Spain.
The Company controls over 167,000 acres of unpatented claims and fee land. Eleven of the projects are in joint venture agreements with seven companies providing exploration funding. The Company applies the extensive Nevada exploration experience and high-end technical skills of its founders to search for and acquire new precious metal exploration projects that are then offered for joint venture.
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