Unassociated Document


    LITTLE
BUTTE, ARIZONA

     

    EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY

     

     

    Location  The
property is located in southwestern Arizona 118 miles northwest of Phoenix and
20 miles east of Parker.

     

    Land
Status  MinQuest Inc. holds the property via 47 unpatented
mining claims which are 100 percent owned and 5 patented claims, which are
optioned with no retained royalty. An additional 26 unpatented claims were
recently located bringing the total land package to approximately 1,560 acres.
Tuffnell Ltd. Has optioned the entire property package from
MinQuest.

     

    History  The first
claims in the area, which became known as the Plomosa Mining District, were
staked in the 1890’s.  The largest producer was the Little Butte
Copper Mine, from which copper-gold ore mined averaged 4-6 percent copper and
0.2-0.3 oz/ton (7-10 g/t) gold according to 1940-1942
records.  Earlier production appears to have been somewhat higher
grade but production figures are not available.  The ore was mined
from a northwest trending fault zone which dips to the northeast.  The
host rocks are Tertiary age sediments.  Gold was mined from workings
west and southwest of the Little Butte Copper Mine hosted by Precambrian
granite.  These high angle quartz-hematite veins dominantly trend
north to northeasterly but some trend northwesterly.  The only
recorded production from these areas, dated 1910 and 1911, averaged 1.13 oz/ton
(38.7 g/t) gold.  Total recorded production (1910-11, 1929-31, 1940-42
only) for the district is only 5,000 ounces of
gold, 350,000 pounds of copper and 7,000 ounces of silver.

     

    
      


    

     

    Looking
northwest across the Little Butte Copper Mine dump toward Little
Butte.

     

    
      
         

      

      
         

        
          

        

      

      
         

      

    

     

    The most
recent attempt to mine in the district was conducted in 1960 when Loma Grande
Mining Company attempted to vat leach gold using cyanide.  The venture
failed, apparently because of a lack of experience on the part of the
operator.  In the period 1983 to 1990 several significant exploration
programs were conducted.  Tenneco drilled 6,005 feet in 24 holes in
the granitic basement rocks south of Little Copper Butte in
1983-84.  U.S. Borax drilled 8,790 feet in 18 holes in the
southwestern part of the district in 1984-86.  Homestake drilled
20,200 feet in 54 holes  in sediments in the northern portion of the
district in1988-91.  Only U.S. Borax analyzed drill cuttings for
copper.  All other drilling was only analyzed for
gold.  MinQuest has conducted some analysis for copper.

     

    Geology and
Mineralization  Basement rocks at Little Butte consist of
Precambrian age granite, gneiss and to a lessor extent,
schist.  Tertiary age sediments and volcanics were deposited on the
Precambrian rocks
beginning with a basal conglomerate derived from the basement.

     

    Above the
conglomerate is a thick section of arkose-rich sediments.  This
section, which also contains siltstone, limestone and a few tuffaceous units is
often calcareous.  The arkosic portion of the section hosts the bulk
of the copper-gold mineralization tested by Homestake.

     

    Above the
arkose-rich section there is a rapid change to  volcanic dominated
strata.  Andesitic to basaltic flows and tuff are interbedded with
lesser limestone, sandstone, shale and siltstone. Andesite to rhyolite dikes are
common.  All of the above rocks, with the possible exception of some
younger basalt flows and mafic dikes are altered by the mineralizing
event. 

     

    Doming,
caused by the inferred emplacement of a Tertiary age intrusive, has tilted older
Tertiary sediments and erosion has exposed Precambrian basement
rocks.  This doming has a northwest elongation parallel to the
regional bedding trend.  Regionally, rocks dip southwest, but around
the dome rocks dip off of the former high.  The most prominent
structures trend northwest, with northeast faults less conspicuous and
north-south faults common but poorly defined.  The northwest and
northeast sets appear to be tensional features while the north-south set is
strike slip in origin. The northwest set is dominant, probably younger than
other trends and may be in part post-mineral.  Rotation along
half-graben faults is evident especially along northwest trending faults in the
northeastern portion of the district.  The north-south and northeast
structure sets appear most mineralized.

     

    Quartz-hematite-sulfide
(oxidized) stockworks and sheeted vein structures are found within the granitic
basement rocks over a 3,000 feet by 4,000 feet area.  A recently
completed study of stockwork veining within this area shows alteration and
mineralization characteristic of a Grasberg style system.  Early
widespread intense potassic alteration is cut by hematite veins and then by
quartz-sulfide veins.  Grab samples used in the study and containing
quartz-sulfide veins assayed as high as 1.05 oz/t (36 g/t)
gold.  Fluid inclusion temperatures as well as the lack of skarn
indicates the current level of erosion is high in the mineralizing
system.  The gold seen at surface could be leakage from a much larger
mineralized cupola occurring above an intrusive body at depth. While the
immediate target is the shallow sediment hosted mineralization, at some point
deeper drilling will be needed to test the stockworks and the deep
cupola.

     

    A
detachment fault has been documented south of the district.  No
associated mineralization has been found.

     

    
      
         

      

      
         

        
          

        

      

      
         

      

    

     

    Plotting
of all known rock chip and drill hole geochemistry for the district shows a
distinct metal zonation.  A molybdenum rich core (>50ppm) is
surrounded by a generally northeast trending copper-gold zone where many samples
average greater than 0.1 % copper and 0.15 ppm gold.  This zone as
currently defined is 6,500 feet wide and 13,000 feet long.  It is open
ended.  Anomalous lead-zinc-silver is found south of the copper-gold
zone.  Fluorite and barite are also common in the district, but
insufficient analyses were conducted to determine their zonal
pattern.

     

    Copper-gold
mineralization occurs as two basic types at Little Butte. High angle faults,
shear zones, and stockworks (as mentioned above) contain copper/gold
mineralization in the form of quartz-hematite-sulfide (oxidized)
veinlets.  This structure hosted mineralization was slightly tested by
Tenneco whose stated target was actually flat lying detachment fault hosted
gold.  Scattered drilling in the granitic basement found several
narrow intercepts of 0.01-0.08 oz/ton (0.34-2.7 g/t) gold.

     

    Secondly,
copper/gold mineralization also occurs in arkose of Tertiary age just above the
contact with Precambrian granite.  A 1988-91 gold exploration program
by Homestake found several ore grade drill intercepts (best hole contained 21
meters averaging 0.127 oz/ton or 4.4 g/t) gold hosted by the
arkose.  Several other +0.04 oz/ton (1.4 g/t) intercepts occur across
the tested area. The mineralization is all oxide and appears to be heap
leachable as shown by the few bottle roll tests done.

     

    No copper
analysis of drill cuttings was done by Homestake.  MinQuest obtained
the drilling pulps and have analyzed some holes for for soluble copper. Of 11
holes studied, scattered over nearly 3 km2, 6 were
found to contain greater than 30 meters averaging greater than
0.10  percent acid soluble copper.  The best hole contains
93 meters averaging 0.25 percent copper.

     

    Targets  The
immediate target at Little Butte is gold associated with arkosic
sediments.  The arkose hosted mineralization discovered by Homestake
has a resource potential of approximately 1.0 million ounces of heap leachable
grade gold (+0.01 oz/ton).  Homestake tested only a small portion of
the 13,000 feet by 6,500 feet zone which is open ended.  This target
is located peripheral to the altered quartz-hematite stockwork
area.  The same area has oxide copper potential as shown above.
Finding major feeder structures, which channel mineralization into the arkose,
is the key to finding the targeted size and grade.  The area known as
the Walker Patented Claims (Walker Target) have enough historic drilling to
outline a small shallow resource. Fill-in and extension drilling of this target
is the initial program planned for the property. Past bottle roll metallurgy
shows good gold recoveries. This is an open pit heap
leach target that has room to grow.

     

    A
compilation of all available work in the district shows copper-gold occurs
within a large open-ended zone.  A central molybdenum anomaly roughly
correlates with copper-gold bearing quartz-hematite-sulfide  stockwork
veining and potassic alteration.  This same assemblage (Cu-Au-FeOx) is
found in a number of world class copper-gold porphyries throughout the world
including Grassberg in Indonesia.  The target is copper-gold in a
large stockwork zone associated with a Tertiary age intrusive at
depth.  The strength of mineralization may increase as one approaches
the intrusive.  Although no skarns are present on the property, fluid
inclusion temperatures of +250o C for
quartz veins indicate the Tertiary intrusive related target is within a
drillable depth.  The Grassberg deposit consists of 1 billion tons
grading 1.4 percent copper and 0.06 oz/ton gold.  This is an
underground, block cavable target.