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Target: Extensions of a high-grade surface oxide Carlin System. Initial drilling covered 1300' of strike length over a 4,800' high grade soil and rock chip anomaly. Drilling in 2006 tested areas up to 1,200' to the SW and 500' to the NE. Drilling still needs to go another 1,800' to the SW to test the full strike length of the surface anomaly. There is still significant lateral extent to test on the surface anomaly as well as down dip extensions.
Location: The Long Canyon Project is about 25 miles ESE of Wells, Nevada just south of Highway 80 in Elko County Nevada. The project includes about 9,000 acres of claims and reserved mineral rights. AuEx contributed approximately 6,000 acres and NewWest contributed approximately 3,000 acres.
Ownership: A letter of intent agreement was signed with NewWest Gold Corporation ("NewWest"), a private exploration and development company. Each party will reserve a 3% net smelter royalty on lands contributed. To earn a 51% interest in the joint venture, NewWest must expend the first $5,000,000 on the joint venture properties within five years, with $400,000 committed in the first year. NewWest may earn an additional 14% to increase its joint venture interest to a 65% maximum by completing all subsequent expenditures through to completion of a feasibility study.
History: Exploration beginning in the mid 1990's in the Pequop Mountains by Pittston Nevada Gold discovered gold bearing jasperoids on the west side of the range. Exploration subsequently located anomalous gold on the east side of the range near Long Canyon but was not acted upon until a land exchange had occurred by the BLM involving some of the anomalous ground. One phase of drilling was carried out by Pittston in 1990 and it included 7 holes covering a small area of the northeast portion of the surface anomaly. Results were not very encouraging with the exception of one hole. AuEx acquired PNGC in 2004 and drilled another 7 holes in 2005 after a reinterpretation of the geology and increasing the exposure in this covered area. The 2005 results were highly encouraging. In 2006 NewWest Gold and AuEx entered into a JV and drilled 16 additional holes in August 2006.
Geology: Long Canyon mineralization is hosted in shelf carbonates of Cambro-Ordovician age. Mineralization is largely confined to the regionally equivalent Cambrian Notch Peak Formation and the Ordovican Pogonip Formation. There appear to be both high angle and low angle structures controlling the mineralization.
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