Exploration Potential
Pumpkin Hollow is located in a copper district that is known to host over 24 billion pounds of copper. Several opportunities for resource expansion within Nevada Copper's extensive 25 square mile land package have been identified and will be systematically tested. These currently include:
Entire Project Area
Based on the results of the 2007 to 2012, drilling and the re-assaying program Nevada Copper has been successful in expanding the copper, gold and silver resources within the property. The database now consists of over 740 drill holes containing in excess of 335,200 meters (1,100,000 feet) of drilling and over 89,000 assays. The 2011 and 2012 program consisted of 94 resource holes totaling 47,700 meters (156,500 feet) and 10 hydrological, and geotechnical holes that totaled 3,900 meters (12,800 feet).
Western Deposits
North Deposit:
While the best drilled and understood, the North Deposit still remains open even after extensive drilling in 2011 and 2012. Drilling in those years demonstrated the expansion potential with a 1.1 billion pound increase in M&I copper resources primarily in the North deposits (see September 2012 mineral resource update).
The North Deposit remains open on its eastern and southeastern boundaries. Drill hole NC10-29, drilled as a step-out to the northeast, intersected 40.4 meters (132.5 ft), averaging 0.75% copper. NC11-33 and NC11-34 were drilled along the eastern border of the North Deposit. Both holes intersected multiple zones of mineralization. Hole NC11-33 intersected 156 feet (47.4 meters) averaging 0.41% copper and NC11-34 intersected 195 feet (59.4 meters) averaging 0.48% copper.
Mineralization also remains open at depth and southern boundary of the North Deposit. Located along the southern boundary of the deposit, NC12-03 intersected (127 feet of 3.96% copper) in the area of the ultimate pit wall of the 2012 Feasibility Study area. At depth, below the feasibility ultimate pit outline, NC11-51 identified a thick zone 470 feet of grading 0.73% copper. The copper mineralization along the southern pit boundary and at depth suggests that the North ultimate pit will be both deeper and larger, expanded towards the South pit.
The area between the North and South Deposits was previously under-drilled, but drilling in both 2011 and 2012 has yielded low grade mineralization between the deposits. This suggests that the two open pits encompassing both deposits would merge together. NC11-23 intersected 18.3 meters (600 ft), averaging 0.29% copper. NC11-32 intersected multiple zones of mineralization including 30 feet (9.1 meters) grading 1.12% copper and 41 feet (12.5 meters) grading 0.34% copper and NC11-40 intersected, 191 feet (58.2 meters), 146.3 feet (44.6 meters) true thickness, grading 0.25% copper. Continued expansion of mineralization in this area will have a positive influence on future pit designs.
South Deposit:
The South Deposit was originally drilled for the iron resource where widely spaced drilling was insufficient to define the copper mineralization. Nevada Copper targeted these areas and was highly successful in confirming and improving the resource status of the South Deposit. A good example of the successful infill drilling is drill hole NC08-25 which intersected 89.6 meters (294.0 ft), 77.7 meters true thickness, averaging 1.03% copper. Shallow copper mineralization remains open along the south-western and northern boundaries. These areas offer an excellent potential for development of shallower, higher grade mineralization that could significantly impact the early years of the project when the North Deposit is being pre-stripped. Additionally mineralization is also open down dip in several areas.
Preliminary work on the iron resources is looking encouraging. The resource is sufficiently large and the early work sufficiently promising to justify additional metallurgical testing of the iron. A large tonnage of iron ore exists that is low in copper that has not had representative testing completed. Metallurgical test work is currently in progress to determine the quality of the final product that could be produced.
Southeast Deposit:
The exploration drilling in the Southeast deposit has delineated a small resource that is relatively shallow and is open to the southwest. Additional exploration drilling is planned to determine if the resource will be included in future mine plans.
Eastern Deposits
East and E2 Deposits:
The East and E2 Deposits contain the higher-grade copper and gold mineralization within the property. Drilling by Nevada Copper has expanded significantly the classified resources to the East and E2. The mineralization in the East deposit occurs as large manto-like bodies that contain several high grade trends (cores). Several of these trends remain open. One such open trend located along the southwestern boundary of the East deposit is hole NC11-09, which intersected, 38.4 meters (126.0 ft), averaging 1.75% copper. Current exploration plans include additional delineation and expansion drilling to be conducted from underground.
Like the East deposit the E-2 mineralization is also manto-like with a high grade core. The deposit has been rotated to where the beds are steeply dipping at 70 degrees. The open mineralization is down dip and along strike to the southwest. A good example of open mineralization down dip is NC09-10 which intersected 33.5 meters (110.0 ft) averaging 1.75 % copper, 0.25 g/t gold, 5.9 g/t silver.
Between the East and E2 Deposits, lies the JK-34 area. Widely spaced drilling has intersected high-grade mineralization that could be continuous with the East Deposit. Additional surface or underground drilling has the potential to increase the underground resource.
Exploration Potential
The claim block still contains significant areas that have little or no exploration to date. The geologic conditions are present that would support finding additional copper, gold, and silver mineralization. As the present known resources are large, exploration is currently secondary to development of the known deposits.
