Overview

Mine Type	Open Pit
Stage	Preliminary Economic Assessment
Commodities	Gold
Mining Method	Truck & Shovel / Loader
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	In 2020, Rex completed a small-scale scoping study at the Bells Project area to identify the potential for a low capex small scale start option at Hog Ranch. The Plan of Operation (PoO) at Hog Ranch encompasses all of the Bells and Krista Project areas. On 22 April 2024, the US Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) agency approved the PoO for the Company’s proposed future exploration activities over Bells and Krista.

Deposit type

• Epithermal
• Vein / narrow vein

Summary:

The Project lies within a broad region of relatively young (15Ma) volcanic rocks predominantly made up of welded flow banded rhyolite units interlayered with unwelded bedded tuffs (Bussey, 1996). The volcanic host rocks and subsequent hydrothermal activity associated with this volcanism is interpreted to be the cause of the gold mineralisation and associated large scale alteration observed at Bells.

Bells has the typical geological signature of a low-sulphidation epithermal deposit which formed close to the surface. Throughout north-west Nevada, there exists other similar epithermal gold deposits (such as Midas and Sleeper) which have a documented age similar to Bells and are interpreted to be related to volcanism and hydrothermal activity from the Yellowstone “Hot Spot” (Saunders et. al., 2008).

Bells is defined by a large area of alteration which has affected the volcanic host rocks and it is this alteration which initially attracted explorers to the project area. The gold mineralisation within this large alteration feature is predominantly dispersed horizontally along favourable and relatively flat lying host rocks. The current Mineral Resource estimate is based on the style of mineralisation that was the initial focus of exploration and mining. This style of mineralisation is dominated by relatively flat lying and dispersed low-grade gold mineralisation.

The gold mineralisation at Bells is hosted within a welded rhyolite rock unit. The bulk of the gold mineralisation defined at Bells occurs as bedding parallel (close to horizontal) disseminated gold which extends over a surface area of at least 900m x 900m. This shallow gold mineralisation is also interpreted to have been brought to the surface via a number of “feeder” structures, which could also host significant gold mineralisation at depth.

The general limits to the shallow gold mineralisation at Bells are constrained to the north, east and to the south, by surrounding historical drill holes. However, there remains within this surface footprint further extensions at depth, particularly in the north eastern portion of the deposit where the 2020 drilling results identified large thicknesses of gold mineralisation to the end of the hole. Also within this footprint there are interpreted to exist a number of controlling feeder structures, one of which is well defined by a surface outcropping quartz-adularia vein and further supported by a number of angled drill holes along strike from this outcrop.

It was previously considered that the gold mineralisation at Bells was also limited towards the west. However, a recent hyperspectral survey (which can identify the location of clay minerals which are typically formed in a hydrothermal environment) has highlighted the possibility for Bells to extend to the west, over an area which is very similar in size to the current defined currently defined by the updated Resource.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

Operational metrics

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Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Jan 15, 2025
.......................	.......................		Jan 15, 2025

Total Workforce	Year
......	2020