Pathfinder is expanding the 2014 PFS-identified resources of nearly 750M tons, to a target of 1B tons global resource, mostly within the existing footprint of patented claims and private land. Updated pit-constrained resources will include historic molybdenum and copper resources, as well as additional mineralization identified in recent drilling. Potential for mineralization beyond known resources remains open to the north, south, at depth, and to the east.
Within Pathfinder’s land package there are several historic mines. Historic production from these mines was dominantly silver and includes extraction at the Liberty mine (with a four-stamp mill and smelter), the Spanish mine and the Florence mine. The silver mines on our land package were active in 1854 through the early 1900s as the Tonopah silver district was being developed.
The Tonopah district produced more than five million tons of silver-dominated ore in the early 1900s through companies like Tonopah-Belmont Mining which had a 60-stamp mill. The Tonopah silver strike discovery is second only to the Comstock Lode in Nevada.
Silver targets within Pathfinders land package are largely un-tested. Surface sampling from vein material at the historic Liberty mine showed results of over 795 ppm Ag and over 459 ppm Ag at the Florence prospect. Other prospects around the property have not yet been sampled, nor have any of them been tested with drilling. Mineralized structures at Florence and Liberty appear to strike into and cross-cut porphyry mineralization in the porphyry Mo/Cu resources. Metal ratios and cross-cutting relationships suggest silver mineralization in these peripheral prospects is different than porphyry mineralization and likely to be related to the silver mineralization in the Tonopah district.
South of the known porphyry resources, there is evidence to suggest other porphyry centers. Approximately 1.7 miles to the south of the existing copper and molybdenum pits, an exploration hole intercepted altered meta-sediments and quartz monzonite with molybdenum mineralization at depth. Further to the south, limited surface reconnaissance found evidence of what has been interpreted as potentially a leached cap of a porphyry system with a footprint of similar size to that at the known resources. Some of the historic surface disturbances in the vicinity of this prospect appear to be old drill pads in an area where historic documents suggest Phelps Dodge drill-tested for porphyry mineralization.
The property has great exploration potential for high-grade silver mineralization and other porphyry centers, all within our current package of private land and unpatented claims.
NW-SE Cross section looking north containing PD22-869. Copper-dominated intercepts are shown in red blocks on the right-hand side of the drill trace, and molybdenum-dominated intercepts are shown in blue blocks generally on the left side of the drill trace.
WNW-ESE Cross section looking east containing PD22-872. Copper-dominated intercepts are shown in red blocks on the right-hand side of the drill trace, and molybdenum-dominated intercepts are shown in blue blocks generally on the left side of the drill trace. PD22-873 is also shown in this section.
NW-SE Cross section looking northeast containing PD22-874. Well mineralized copper intercepts are shown in red on the right and blue blocks on the left side of the drill trace show moly mineralization.
NW-SE Cross section looking northeast containing PD22-877. Well mineralized copper intercepts are shown in red on the right and blue blocks on the left side of the drill trace show moly mineralization. The green interval is a thick intercept of andesite.
