Black Reef

Overview

Black Reef is located in Arizona within the Copper Creek-Bunker Hill Mining District ~20 kilometers northeast of the San Manuel Mine and ~ 5 kilometers north of the Copper Creek porphyry.

Precambrian schist (Xp), sedimentary rocks (Ya), diabase, Paleozoic sedimentary rocks (Pz), Laramide volcanic rocks (Kg) and intrusives (Ki) occur to the west of, and project beneath, post mineral Tertiary volcanic rocks (Tv) at Black Reef. Windows of Pz rocks project through the Tv just north of the target area.

There are clear geochemical and alteration zoning patterns in surrounding exposed bedrock. The Kg and Ki rocks west of the covered target area host quartz-sericite-pyrite (oxidized) and locally clay alteration, hydrothermally altered breccias, silicification and more distal chlorite-epidote alteration. The Pz carbonate rocks the  northwest and north of the target area host base and precious metal-bearing replacements including massive jasperoid bodies and local marbleization and skarn.

Targets at Black Reef include the Cu-Mo porphyry system source of the observed altered and mineralized rocks projecting from beneath post mineral cover (Tv) rocks to the west and north of the target area, Manto/CRD-style replacements in Pz host rocks that already exhibit more distal manto-style replacements, and more proximal skarn deposits that are likely to occur closer to the source porphyry center.

Nearby mines and deposits provide context for the project, but do not necessarily indicate similar size, styles or grade of mineralization within the project.