Gold Reef continued the geologic mapping and sampling program during the claim staking process.  Results continued to be encouraging with samples collected from outcrops of highly altered Paleozoic sedimentary units including chert, limestone, quartzite, sandstone, shale and siltstone.  A total of 298 samples were collected during the follow up program including 29% anomalous in gold, 12 of which exceeded one gram and 39% anomalous in silver, ten of which exceed an ounce per ton silver.

Through the 2007 sampling program a total of 798 surface rock chip samples have been collected and analyzed, of which 29% are anomalous in gold; 39% anomalous in silver; 38% anomalous in arsenic, 49% anomalous in antimony and 44% anomalous in zinc. Gold Reef geologists collected samples from all exposed outcrops regardless of whether the outcrop appeared to be mineralized.  This systematic approach ensures that subtle features are not missed.  Distribution of the anomalous geochemistry at Golden Badger is accessible through Metal Miners Plus© using any combination of influencing factors such as lithology, structure, alteration and geophysics.

The screen shot Geosample 1" (top left) depicts the distribution of anomalous gold in surface samples in relation to regional and project geology.  Circles depict drill site locations from previous exploration programs by several companies. The red outline is Gold Reef’s claim boundary.  Red stars indicate anomalous gold in surface samples.

The screen shot "Geosample 2" (left) depicts strongly anomalous molybdenum in surface rock chip samples in the same area of the claims as shown above for gold.

Geologic Summary:

The Golden Badger Project is within the northeastern portion of the Spruce Mountain Mining District within the southwestern Pequop Mountains (Lapointe, 1991).  The Spruce Mountain Mining District is centered on a northeast-striking zone of Cu-Mo-Au bearing, high-angle granitic intrusives, which cut Paleozoic sedimentary rocks that, although locally folded and faulted by Paleozoic and Mesozoic compression, generally dip gently to the northeast.

The Spruce Mountain area lies along a major northeast-striking regional fault zone which is related to the formation of the Tertiary Ruby Mountain metamorphic core complex and is along the eastern boundary of the core complex (Howard, 2003).  The Ruby Mountains are centered on the core complex and are located 50 kilometers to the west of Spruce Mountain.

In the western Spruce Mountain Mining District, down-to-the-west listric normal faults expose older Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and tilt beds to the east.  These faults host base and precious metal mineralization and expose relatively deep Paleozoic sedimentary and Tertiary intrusive rocks and abundant evidence of porphyry and skarn-style mineralization.

In the eastern Spruce Mountain Mining District, high-angle, but locally east-dipping normal faults tilt blocks to the west.  The faults host base and precious mineralization and cut surface and near-surface volcanic rocks and hypabbysal intrusive as well as Paleozoic sedimentary rocks.  Postmineralization rhyolite ash flow tuff, located in the southern Golden Badger Project area, is tilted to the northwest.  In the Spruce Mountain area and in the Northern Pequop Mountains these structures formed a locus for Tertiary magmas and mineralizing hydrothermal fluids. Nevada Pacific Gold has recently explored for porphyry and Carlin-style gold mineralization in the western Spruce Mountain District and adjacent Clover Valley (Sedar filings).  AuEx Ventures Inc. is currently exploring its large Long Canyon Project in the northern Pequop Mountains for Carlin style gold mineralization.

The rocks of the Spruce Mountain area include thick sequences of Ordovician and Silurian through Permian limestone, sandstone, chert, conglomerate, siltstone, shale, and phosphorite.  The Ordovician sedimentary rocks belong to the Pogonip Formation, which is overlain or in fault contact with stratigraphically younger Paleozoic sedimentary rocks.   In stratigraphic order (oldest to youngest) these younger Paleozoic rocks are Simonson Dolomite, Guilmette Formation, Diamond Peak Formation, Ely Limestone, Riepe Springs Limestone, Rib Hill Formation, Pequop Formation, and Plympton, Kiabab, and Loray Formations (Hope, 1972; Coats, 1987).  During the Mesozoic these rocks were folded and locally cut by bedding plane thrust faults.

The Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and Mesozoic structures are cut by numerous Tertiary faults.  The overall dip of beds is to the northeast, but dips vary locally due to earlier folding and variable tilt of fault blocks.  The oldest Tertiary faults are west-rooted low-angle, apparently listric, normal faults.  These are cut by complexly bifurcating and anastomosing high-angle normal faults which host granitic intrusives, veins, and much of the Spruce Mountain District mineralization.  The low angle faults are exposed within a large horst block in the central Spruce Mountain area but probably occur at depth in surrounding graben blocks.

These Tertiary structures are intruded by Tertiary granite and rhyolite porphyry stocks and dikes, and locally, by diorite and lamprophyre dikes (Lapointe, 1991).  Several of the historic base and precious metals mines are located along the northeasterly strike of an extensive high-angle granite porphyry dike, which crosses the northern end of the district.  Numerous jasperoids, zones of decalcification, and a mineralized rhyolite dome complex outcrop along the eastern trace of this dike, where the structural trend extends into the Golden Badger Project.

Magnetic anomalies, identified by the USGS coincide with the rhyolite outcrops and follow the same northeast and northwest trends.  The USGS proposes a northeast-striking shallow granitic pluton, which underlies the entire Spruce Mountain District and whose southeastern boundary bisects the magnetic anomalies and crosses the Golden Badger Claim block.

Locally, the Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and Tertiary intrusives and rhyolites are overlain unconformably by a Tertiary post-mineralization rhyolite ash flow tuff.  The stratigraphy of the Golden Badger Project consists of at least several hundred meters of exposed Paleozoic sedimentary rocks that include, in stratigraphic order (oldest to youngest) Ely Limestone, Riepe Spring Limestone, and Pequop and Rib Hill Formation limestones.  The base of the sedimentary section is not exposed in the project area and overall stratigraphic thickness is uncertain (Figure 8).  In the northern part of the claim block, the Paleozic sediments are overlain and intruded by a locally mineralized rhyolite flow-dome complex that includes rhyolite flow, hypabbysal intrusive, and associated phreatic surge tuffs.  A postmineralization, moderately welded crystal-vitric (>10% phenocrysts) rhyolite tuff unconformably overlies the Paleozoic rocks in the south central prospect area.  Volumetrically the bedded Pequop limestone and Rib Hill Formations represent over half of the Paleozoic outcrops in the project area.  The limestone beds are light to medium grey, except along faults and bedding planes, where they are hydrothermally altered and replaced by silica and other secondary minerals.  Most limestone beds have a large terrigenous clastic component and the silty Pequop limestone grades upward into the very sandy Rib Hill Formation.  The original volume percent of silt and sand sized clasts is uncertain due to variable decalcification of the limestones by hydrothermal fluids.

Fossil-rich beds are common and include lenses of discontinuous coarse-grained bioclastic beds rich in crinoid fragments, fusilinids, and gastropods.  Beds are generally thicker low in the Pequop Formation limestone section.  The sandy beds within the Pequop and overlying Rib Hill Formation are relatively thin and outcrops are shale-like especially where hydrothermally altered.

A broad northerly striking anticline formed in the Paleozoic sedimentary rocks is central to the Golden Badger claims. Tertiary northeast-, northwest- and lesser east-west-striking high-angle normal faults cut and displace this anticline.  Two of the most continuous northeast-striking normal faults form a northeast-striking graben within the central claim area.

A mineralized rhyolite intrusive/extrusive dome complex intrudes both northeast- and northwest-striking mineralized normal faults in the northern Golden Badger Project.  Magnetic anomalies identified by the USGS are coincident with the rhyolite dome complex and the southeastern margin of an inferred shallow granitic pluton is coincident with both dome and magnetic anomalies (Raines, 1996).  Rhyolite flows and tuffs unconformably overlie the Paleozoic rocks and conceal earlier normal faulting and mineralization.  Several younger northwest-striking normal faults of small displacement cut the rhyolite.

There is evidence that some northeast-striking normal faults are postmineralization and may even be active.  The Spruce Mountain Ridge Fault and related high-angle normal faults are down-to the-west and displace Quaternary and older units (Depalo, 1998; Dohrenwend and others 1991; Rowley and Anderson, 2000).  A Quaternary fault on the eastern side of Spruce Mountain Ridge has a down-to-the east displacement and structurally separates Independence Valley from the Spruce Mountain Ridge.

Varying degrees of alteration are widespread along most high-angle normal faults in the Golden Badger Project area.  The most strongly altered and mineralized host rocks are in the hanging wall of northeast-and northwest-striking quartz veins and especially in adjacent fault breccias.  Rocks are strongly silicified adjacent to the veins and jasperoid is common.  In the hanging wall, distal to the veins, silica is less abundant, but the limestone is decalcified and locally enriched in dolomite and other secondary minerals.  Decalcification is strongest adjacent to the jasperoids.  The largest areas of alteration are in the far northern Golden Badger claim area and in the southwestern claim area.  In the northern claim area, jasperoid and silicification are common adjacent to a mineralized northwest-striking normal fault.  Alteration is hosted by Pequop limestone and Tertiary flow-foliated rhyolite.

Northeast-striking and northwest-striking vein gangue mineralogy includes several generations of quartz, sericite, calcite, dolomite and iron oxides.  Pseudomorphic casts of probably oxidized gangue minerals are commonly preserved within quartz in the veins and probably included pyrite and arsenopyrite.  Primary ore minerals identified in the district (Lapointe, 1991) are argentiferous galena, chalcopyrite, bornite, and sphalerite. The principal district wide oxide ore minerals are cerussite, anglesite, malachite, and chrysocolla.

Gold mineralization encountered at the Golden Badger Project is hosted in veins, fault breccia which parallels veins, and zones of replacement and decalcification in adjacent Paleozoic sediments and Tertiary intrusive rocks.  The veins are fault controlled and mineralization occurred during faulting.  The Paleozoic sediments are displaced across the veins.  Locally, older veins are brecciated and cemented by younger veins.  The zones of replacement are locally broad and follow favorable horizons in the bedded limestone host rocks, fault breccia, low- to high-angle normal faults, and district-wide in thrust planes.

Gold is associated with decalcification, silicification, and highly anomalous concentrations of antimony, arsenic, lead, silver and zinc and locally anomalous mercury, molybdenum, and copper.  This association of alteration and geochemistry is typical of polymetallic vein and replacement deposits and distal with respect to distal-disseminated, skarn, and porphyry deposits in this region.

Epithermal gold mineralization is possibly hosted within the mineralized rhyolite dome complex in the northern Gold Badger claim area.  Gold values are most closely associated with arsenic and other pathfinders and base metals values are generally lower.  Most rhyolite/limestone contacts are depositional which suggest surface or near surface conditions during mineralization.  Isolated blocks of jasperoid and vein materials are locally entrained within the rhyolite and were apparently transported from greater depths.  Base metal values are higher within these entrained blocks and suggest that distal-disseminated, skarn, or porphyry mineralization might be at depth beneath the rhyolite flow or adjacent to the rhyolite hypabyssal intrusive dike.  Potential exists for Carlin-style sediment-hosted gold mineralization due to the close correlation of gold and arsenic anomalies, relatively low mercury and antimony values, and the district-wide availability of favorable host rocks. 

A detailed gravity survey and ground magnetic survey on the Golden Badger Project area were conducted by Big Sky Geophysics.   The results of these surveys show geophysical anomalies which closely correspond with known veining, alteration zones, mineralization and structures, which were determined by detailed geologic mapping.

The results of geologic mapping and rock chip geochemistry by Gold Reef delineate mineralized zones that warrant further exploration.  A drilling program has been designed to test for deep mineralization within the mineralized structures and adjacent zones of replacement and decalcification. The drilling program of 33 reverse-circulation holes totaling 7,536 meters (24,800 feet) of drilling is tentatively scheduled in two phases during 2008.