The Desperado property covers an area of 1,410 hectares (3,480 acres) and is located in Nye County within the historical Ellendale mining district, approximately 40 kilometres east of the town of Tonopah. Desperado is readily accessible by a series of local dirt roads connecting with Highway 6. Gold and silver at the Property are hosted within a low-sulphidation epithermal environment. The mineralization is typically structurally controlled and found at or proximal to the contact between rhyolite and andesite, with precious metals commonly associated with silicification and disseminated pyrite.
The Ellendale mining district was discovered in 1909 by Ellen Clifford Nay when she found high-grade gold in a large rock float. Most of the work in the area was conducted between 1909 and 1915 and is noted by several abandoned adits, shafts and trenches. The district remains underexplored with no indication of modern exploration work having been conducted within the property area during at least the past 30 years.[5]
Most of the historical workings are found in rhyolite near the contact with andesite porphyry. The rhyolite is fine grained and rather siliceous and carries small phenocrysts of quartz and feldspar. Based on field observations, epithermal-style gold and silver mineralization appears to be associated with silicified-sericitized rhyolite breccia and quartz veins proximal to the rhyolite–andesite contact. The USGS Mineral Resource Data System reports four mineralized prospects on the property that correspond to historical workings, though several additional workings have been identified that were not reported by the USGS. The historical workings and mineralization are associated with large areas of low-sulphidation hydrothermal clay alteration.
Target Areas
Priority target areas have been grouped into two distinct zones within the Property. The eastern zone consists of a 2 kilometre by 4 kilometre flattened circular feature, which could represent a collapsed magma chamber, showing an alteration halo with width ranging from 250 metres to over 750 metres. The alteration halo consists mainly of clay +/- quartz altered rhyolite. Targets identified both within the alteration halo and central to the circular feature are found at or proximal to the contact between rhyolite and andesite along interpreted structures, often coincident with IP anomalies.
The western zone is interpreted as a normal fault uplifted block that exhibits a deeper level of epithermal mineralization at surface than what is observed in the eastern zone. In this western portion of the Property, the silver to gold ratio appears to be much higher than in the eastern zone, such as more than 100 to 1 compared to approximately 10 to 1, based on the few samples collected from the leftover rocks historically extracted from artisanal mine workings. Additional geological studies and exploration work, including drilling, would contribute to a better understanding of the geological evolution and mineral emplacement mechanisms of the project area.
2020-2021 Exploration Program
During 2020-2021, Infield completed a surface exploration campaign at Desperado that consisted of geological mapping, prospecting, rock and soil sampling, and ground geophysical surveying. This exploration work has led to the identification of multiple gold-silver target areas across the Property that are prospective for gold-silver discovery. Additionally, initial reconnaissance work identified large areas of hydrothermal clay alteration within the Desperado property through a specialized interpretation of satellite spectral data. During a field inspection, 60 clay altered rock samples were collected from the alteration areas and subsequently analysed using a Terraspec Spectrometer to evaluate the nature of alteration. The minerals identified in the study were consistent with low-sulfidation and high-sulfidation clay alteration in epithermal systems.
2020-2021 Rock Sample Highlights:
2021 Soil Program
In April 2021, Infield carried out a systematic soil sampling program across an extensive zone of hydrothermal clay alteration. The survey included 710 samples on a grid mesh of 100 x 100 meters, covering an area of approximately 4 kilometres by 3 kilometers. The soil survey results indicate that anomalous silver in soil is distributed over an area of 3.5 kilometres in length by 500 to 800 metres in width. Anomalous values for gold in soil over the same area are erratic, which can be expected due to the poor mobility of the element. Two additional elements of interest, arsenic and manganese, that are generally associated with silver mineralization in the Tonopah region, were also found in relation to the anomalous silver area.
2021 Geophysical Program
Infield completed ground magnetic (“MAG”) and induced polarization(“IP”) geophysical surveys at Desperado from July 24 to October 4, 2021. The surveys consisted of 158 line-kilometers of MAG and 88line-kilometers of IP readings. The aim of the surveys was to outline promising geophysical polarizable anomalies that could highlight mineralized bodies and structures which may represent interesting targets for follow up work.
MAG and IP geophysical techniques can be highly effective in exploring for epithermal style gold and silver mineralization, thus were selected for application at Desperado. Mineralization may occur in association with altered and silicified structures with or without the presence of sulphides. MAG surveys can help identify these structures or potential shear zones, along with different rock units, by measuring the rock’s natural magnetism and highlighting contrasts with host rocks. Coupled with MAG, IP can further help distinguish different rock types and structures by measuring resistivity and is especially useful for the detection of disseminated sulphide mineralization through measuring chargeability. The results of the MAG and IP surveys were interpreted in the context of an epithermal target model and previous work conducted by Infield.
The in-depth interpretation of the 2021 MAG-IP survey results led to the identification of more than forty (40) anomalous IP trends across the Desperado property. Possible origins of the IP anomalies include alteration and silicification of rocks along faults or shear zones with variable sulphide enrichment and/or a lithological nature. These IP anomalies were assessed through field inspection and desktop analysis, and a selection was prioritized for drill testing.
2022 Drilling Campaign
The 2022 Desperado drilling campaign was designed to test lithological contacts and structural features for epithermal style mineralization. Infield commenced drilling in July and completed the program in August of 2022 for a total of 1,518 metres of reverse circulation (“RC”) drilling across ten drill holes. Locations for the ten RC holes drilled by Infield at Desperado are shown in Figure 1.
Several of the selected targets exhibited chargeability highs within lithological contact zones. Drilling of these targets intersected wide zones of up to 20% disseminated pyrite within intensely clay altered rhyolite near contact zones with andesite, corresponding with the chargeability anomalies. Similarly, other targets tested on the property intersected structural features enriched in pyrite. Gold and silver in the area is known to occur in the types of rocks targeted in this campaign, however, only minor amounts of precious metals were returned from the RC rock chip samples that were submitted to the laboratory for analysis (522 samples total). Drill hole collar information is provided in Table 1 and a summary of drill hole intersections is presented in Table 2. Further review of the drilling data in context to the geological environment and additional studies would be required to better understand the potential of additional targets at Desperado.
Table 1: 2022 Desperado drilling campaign collar information
Table 2: Summary of intersections from the 2022 Desperado drilling campaign
Technical information contained on this website has been reviewed and approved by Richard Dufresne, P.Geo., Vice President Exploration for Infield Minerals Corp. and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
The potential quantity and grade of mineralization described herein is conceptual in nature as there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in targets being delineated as a mineral resource.
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