Simple, Low Cost Project with
District Scale Exploration
LOCATION:
Imperial County, California
RESOURCES:
GOLD (AU)
OWNERSHIP:
KORE Mining 100%
IMPERIAL GOLD PROJECT
Imperial County, California, USA
KORE’s 100% owned Imperial Project is located in California within nine miles of the Mesquite mine (owned by Equinox Gold). The recent preliminary economic assessment demonstrated Imperial has the potential to be a simple run-of-mine heap leach gold mine with positive project economics. KORE’s next steps are to bring the PEA mine plan into permitting and explore the Mesquite-Picacho District to make new discoveries and grow the resource base.
PROJECT DETAILS
Imperial is a large, near surface oxide gold deposit with potential for open pit (“OP”) mining and cyanide heap leaching (“HL”). The proposed project concept is similar to other mines in the area, namely the closed Picacho Mine and operating Mesquite Mine. Heap leach processing has lower water, air, environmental and biological impact than milling operations.
Being far-removed from communities and subsided in local topography, the impact on viewscapes is limited to the immediate project area. KORE’s mine and reclamation plan will address current Federal, State and County regulations and meets California reclamation requirements, including backfilling.
Glamis Gold, Inc. (“Glamis”) prepared a Feasibility Study in April 1996 that contemplated a run-of-mine (“ROM”) operation*** and submitted an environmental impact study/report (EIS/EIR) to regulators.
Note: Historic studies should not be relied upon by investors. Such studies were done prior to the implementation of the current NI 43-101 guidelines and information contained in any historical study is not being treated as current information. KORE does not consider the historic production or economic realization of Picacho or Mesquite as indicative of mineralization at Imperial or the economics of any such mineralization.
PROPERTY DESCRIPTION & LOCATION
The Imperial Project consists of 656 claims covering 5,721 acres and is located in Imperial County in the desert region of southeastern California, USA. It is located along the Indian Pass Road approximately 26 road-miles northwest of the city of Yuma, Arizona, and is approximately 45 miles east-north-east of El Centro, California. The project is located on public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”).
The operating Mesquite Mine and the closed Picacho Mine are located roughly 10 miles to the west and east, respectively, of the property. The closed American Girl Mine is about 8 miles south of the project.
Infrastructure for the project is excellent . The project site is completely undeveloped. Site access is via paved Ogilby Road, 40 miles from Brawley CA and 30 miles fromYuma AZ connecting to Indian Pass Road, a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) road leading right to the deposit. The project site also has a water well (drilled as a production water well by Glamis) and a power line (161kV) that feeds Mesquite on the property.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
PROJECT MAPS
![](https://newkore.shalecreativedevelopment.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Picture1-2.png)
HISTORY
1980: Goldfields Mining Corp. began regional-scale exploration in search of heap-leachable deposits similar to their discovery at Mesquite.
1981-1985: Exploration concentrated on the Imperial area based on anomalous drainage geochemistry, geophysical signatures, and outcropping mineralization at the Singer and Anna M prospects.
1986: Exploratory drilling intersected mineralization at the East and West areas (e.g. K-77 27.4 m at 1.12 g/t Au).
1987: Imperial County JV formed between Goldfields, Glamis Gold, and Amir Mines Inc.
1987-1992: Deposit was expanded through continued RC drilling. By 1992, 169 RC holes totalling 21,805 m were drilled.
1994: Glamis Gold acquired 100% of the property.
1994-1996: Resource development drilling was initiated. A total of 29,147 m in 127 holes were completed. Metallurgical testing, engineering, environmental, and archeological studies were also completed.
1996: A feasibility study was completed in April, 1996.
1996-2000: An environmental impact report/study was published by Glamis Gold and Glamis pursued a permit to operate. Gold price decline and political opposition stalled the project generating litigation which continued though 2007. Glamis was taken over by GoldCorp.
2012: GoldCorp optioned to Delta Gold. An NI 43-101 compliant preliminary economic assessment report was completed in October, 2012**. The accompanying resource estimate was based on 349 holes totalling 59,450 metres. Historic mineral resources and economic analyses are not supported by a KORE NI 43-101 technical report and should not be relied upon.
2013: The optioned project was returned to Goldcorp in a recessionary gold price environment in 2013.
2017: KORE Mining Ltd. acquires 100% of the Imperial project from Goldcorp Inc.
2019: KORE attracts investment from Macquarie Bank and re-starts work on the project. KORE stakes 1007 new claims around Imperial, acquiring all the exploration ground between the Mesquite (operating) and Picacho (closed) gold mines.
2020: The company published a robust PEA (more information here) and has commenced the permitting process to advance the project. KORE has also started exploring to expand the current resource and a district scale exploration program.
Note: Historic studies should not be relied upon by investors. Such studies were done prior to the implementation of the current NI 43-101 guidelines and information contained in any historical study is not being treated as current information
GEOLOGIC SETTING & MINERALIZATION
The project area is underlain by a sequence of Jurassic age gneisses and schists. The overlaying stratigraphy is made up of fanglomerates and alluvium that vary in thickness from 10 to 700 feet (“ft”) and cover 95% of the project area. Gold mineralization occurs primarily within hematitic and limonitic altered breccias, microfractures, and gouge zones developed in the host biotite gneiss and sericite gneiss units.
Minor quartz veining, very-fine grained pyrite pseudomorphs and silicified zones are also common.
Internally, Kore has re-constructed geological and mineral resource models from existing data:
- Kore review of drill logs and RC chips affirmed the regularity of the deposit due to fault hosted mineralization.
- The geological setting of mineralization is responsible for the near-ideal leach characteristics of the deposit.
- A permeable fault zone provided a channel way for mineralizing epithermal solutions.
- Gold is deposited on surfaces of fault-breccia clasts.
- The fault zone remained permeable to groundwater resulting in complete oxidation of mineralization.
- Clast sizes within the fault are optimal for producing permeability in heaps.
- Clasts are relatively unaltered by hydrothermal and weathering events.
- The position of mineralization in the rock sequence is very consistent throughout the deposit.
- The mineralized zone is at or just below the upper fault plane that separates Jurassic volcanics from Cretaceous gneiss.
- Some mineralization penetrated the upper plate (hanging wall of the fault).
- The zone between pits is structurally complex due to post-mineral faulting. However, the mineralized zone continues between the pits.
RESOURCES
The Imperial resource is from “Preliminary Economic Assessment – Technical Report Imperial Gold Project” effective as of April 6, 2020 and issued on May 19, 2020, Terre Lane and Todd Harvey of Global Resource Engineering and Glen Cole-P.Geo. of SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc.
The Resource Estimate considers 349 RC boreholes drilled by various operators during the period of 1987-1996. Historical test-work indicates that Imperial is amenable to run-of-mine (“ROM”) heap leaching. No mineral reserve has been estimated for the Imperial project.
Imperial Resource Estimate (metric units):
Classification | Quantity (‘000 tonnes) | Grade Gold (g/t) | Contained Gold (‘000 oz) |
Indicated | |||
Grade Zone (Domains 100, 120) | 45,703 | 0.59 | 877 |
Total Indicated | 45,703 | 0.59 | 877 |
Inferred | |||
Grade Zone (Domains 100, 110, 120) | 72,456 | 0.54 | 1,245 |
Gravel with grade (Domain 200) | 9,577 | 0.14 | 43 |
Bedrock with grade (Domain 300) | 8,843 | 0.17 | 48 |
Total Inferred | 90,876 | 0.46 | 1,336 |
Reported at a cut-off grade of 0.1g/ton Au using a price of US$1,500 /oz Au inside a conceptual pit shell optimized using mining operating costs of US$1.54 per tonne, metallurgical and process recovery of 80%, combined processing and G&A of US$2.53 per tonne, US$0.55 per tonne of sustaining capital and overall pit slope of 45 degrees. All figures rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimates
Gold grades were estimated by ordinary kriging constrained within modeled grade zone domain solids. Gold grades were estimated within each domain separately using capped composites from within that domain and applying appropriate search parameters. The authors of the Resource Estimate considered that the blocks located within the conceptual pit envelope show “reasonable prospects for economic extraction” and can be reported as a mineral resource.
PERMITTING
The Imperial Project is a real employment and economic development opportunity for Imperial County, CA. Mining operations typically provide high paying, skilled jobs with a significant “multiplier effect” of local spending and supply cascading through the economy.
The historic environmental impact report/statement (EIR/EIS), concluded that there were no significant environmental issues that could not be mitigated. With strict laws in California on air, water and site reclamation the Imperial project will be operated to the highest standards in the world.
KORE has the advantage of extensive historic work supporting the historic feasibility and EIR/EIS. Kore is in process of updating technical, environmental, biological and cultural studies to exceed California mining regulation and practices.
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Located on BLM (federal) lands intended for multiple use (extensive 4×4 use in area). BLM is the lead permitting agency.
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BLM works with Imperial County to comply with California law (focus on reclamation)
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10mi from Mesquite Mine mine: inspected and managed by same local BLM and County authorities as Imperial
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All water, air, biological and cultural inventories well understood
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No cultural resources in the project area have been listed on the national register of historic places (NRHP)
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Impacts to cultural resources will be avoided, or mitigated
In April 2017, the Trump administration developed a “priority work” list for the BLM to streamline the permitting process for hard rock mining (and other activities).
In an August 31, 2017 secretarial order, the DOI “streamlined” agencies’ processes for analyzing environmental impacts. Now, agencies may not spend greater than one (1) year to complete an EIS, nor may their final report be more than 150 pages, or 300 pages for “unusually complex” projects.
*PEA results post-tax and at US$ 1,600/oz gold price and 0.7 $US/$C
** Imperial Project: Preliminary Economic Assessment Technical Report October 26, 2012 by Gordon Doerksen, P.Eng. Lois Boxill, P.Eng. et al of SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. Prepared for ADR Capital Corp., Vancouver, BC. (“2012 PEA”).
*** Western States Engineering Final Feasibility Study, April 1996. Prepared for Chemgold, Inc. (Glamis).