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The Tuscarora and Adelaide properties were farmed out by Atna's wholly owned subsiduary Canyon Resources, to Golden Predator Mines Inc. in February 2008. Golden Predator shall assume the remaining spending obligations on these Properties of $2.75 million over the next four years, while paying Atna up to an additional $1.05 million over that same period. Atna retains a one time production payment on the Properties and an ongoing royalty position.
The Tuscarora mining district is located approximately 38 miles northwest of Elko in the Tuscarora Mountains in northeastern Nevada. It sits between the Carlin trend 22 miles to the south, Midas 30 miles to the west, and the Jerritt Canyon district 12 miles to the northeast. The Tuscarora project consists of 220 unpatented claims controlled by Atna, 17 unpatented claims leased from third parties and 560 acres of leased fee land.
Gold and silver were first discovered at Tuscarora in 1876. Through 1916, the district recorded production of approximately 165,000 ounces of gold and 7.1 million ounces of silver from numerous vein deposits. Beginning in the 1980s, several companies explored the district for bulk mineable gold deposits. In the late 1980s, a previous miner produced approximately 25,000 ounces of gold and 220,000 ounces of silver from a small open pit on an adjacent property exploiting a volcanic-hosted, disseminated gold deposit.
More recent work by Newmont and others has concentrated on Midas style higher-grade, underground gold-silver vein targets. Most of the pediment, about half of the property position, remains to be evaluated for these targets. A substantial database of drillhole and geologic information exists for this property, which displays mineralized zones that may have either open pit or underground potential.
Gold and silver mineralization is related to a swarm of quartz--adularia veins hosted in Eocene volcanic rocks which compose part of the Mount Blitzen volcanic caldera complex. Epithermal gold and silver mineralization is widespread over an area of about 8 square miles, and occurs with numerous north and north-east trending quartz--adularia veins, vein-breccias and stockworks.
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