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46 www.resourceworld.com F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 9 MINING California – Golden to the KORE? by Liam Hardy B etween 1850 and 1957, California was one of the most famous gold produc- ing regions in North America. The Grass Valley district alone pulled out some 17 million ounces (largely by manual labour) from its impressive Empire, Golden Centre and Columbia Gulch properties. Some of these sites are still poked at by rigs hoping to get lucky and some of the estimated 3,060 historic mines now welcome thousands of tourists to share the Golden State's golden history through museums and preserved workings. While California holds her own as a major industrial mining player today, with the world's largest borax project (Rio Tinto) and North America's biggest strate - gic reserve of REEs at Mountain Pass (MP Minerals), she's been quiet on the precious metals front. One freshly launched com- pany is planning to turn that around and inject new life into the state's industry with a potential 5 million ounces on their table. KORE Mining [KORE-TSXV] completed a reverse takeover of Eureka Resources in October 2018 and brought the 100%- owned Imperial (Ex-Goldcorp) and Long Valley (Ex-Vista Gold) claims back to market. Both Californian properties hold modern (2012 and 2018 respectively) NI 43-101s and have a considerable history of exploration activity. The company also holds the Gold Creek (ex-Bullion) and FG claims in British Columbia which have seen recent drilling and geophysical surveys. KORE's CEO and President Adrian Rothwell might be better known for his past positions from Director of Strategy for Goldcorp to CFA of NuLegacy, but he's now set with exciting board posi - tions at KORE and Fireweed Zinc. COO James Hynes brings technical experi- ence to management and board members Don MacDonald (President-CEO of Canadian Zinc), Harry Pokrandt (ex-MD of Macquarie Capital Markets Canada) and Brendan Cahill (President-CEO of Excellon Resources) bring their financing and pub - lic company experience. The company's Imperial Project in south- east California centres around a wonderfully simple oxidized breccia which should be case studied for future university text- books before shovels go into the ground. Mineralization at the site occurs along a local scale fault that separates Jurassic vol- canic sequences from Cretaceous gneisses. The fault's breccias and gouge were not fully lithified after gold and sulphide-bearing fluids were injected. This allowed meteoric waters to circulate and oxidize pyrites and associated sulphides to hematite, limonite and similar Fe-Oxides, which now make up the bulk of the deposit. Gold in this form is relatively easy to separate from oxides and gangue using existing cyanide heap leaching methods. A large amount of the gold here is found on grain and clast boundaries, meaning limited crushing and pre-leach production should be required. The metallurgical sim - plicity is fortunate here because the overall average gold grade is relatively low. KORE is of the view that the mine could process 25,000 tonnes a day over 10 years at an average 0.54 g/t gold across the open- pit mineable deposit of some 329 million tonnes. KORE's second California offering is a truly fascinating one. The Mono County Long Valley gold-silver prospect is off Highway 395, about 45 miles north of Bishop. (Search 'Hot Creek Geological Site' via google maps for location). Gold mineralization here is related to late stages of resurgent volcanism in the Long Valley Caldera after a major erup - tion at Bishop Tuff some 760 years ago. Disseminated gold is found throughout ash tuffs and agglomerate deposits formed in central caldera lake systems, as well as in corresponding domed rhyolites. Gold grades are concentrated along the Long Valley fault where KORE's license sits. The fault is still tectonically active with hot springs and earthquakes common along the trend. Historic RC drilling identified potentially economic grades but didn't conclude ore controls or enough data for modelling. The KORE team are focusing on bringing their existing data up to date and completing full assays for silver which may add significant upside to the existing NI 43-101 report. Completion of new baseline envi - ronmental studies is going to be worth watching from a public interest perspec- tive. A lot of regular controls regarding water quality and chemical leaching are effectively muted by the volcanic activity nearby which spews alkali salt-rich fluids from geysers and springs into the sur - rounding environment and already barren lakes. These springs and lakes also form a tourist attraction at the nearby Forestry Service Mammoth Centre. California Laws governing reclama - tion require KORE to return the project's area and water to its original state, not necessarily to a potable standard. In this volcanic spring system, full remediation would be contentious and nigh-impossi - ble; it may have hindered mining in other jurisdictions. The final arrow in KORE's quiver is Gold James Hynes, Chairman and COO, right, and Mick Gavrilovic, GR Engineering Services Ltd., observing aggregate material and mineralized outcrop at the Imperial Project in southeastern California. Photo courtesy KORE Mining.