The Eros Resources Corp. (ERC) controls 100% ownership of the Bell Mountain property, through its subsidiary Bell Mountain Exploration Corp.(BMEC).
Pursuant to a purchase agreement dated November 3, 2023, as amended on January 8, 2024, March 15, 2024, May 31, 2024 and August 15, 2024, between ERC, BMEC, a wholly owned subsidiary of ERC, Lincoln Gold Mining Inc. (“Lincoln”) and Lincoln Resource Group Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lincoln, ERC agreed to sell all of the assets that comprise the Bell Mountain project(the “Bell Mountain Transaction”), in consideration for (a) 3,000,000 common shares in the capital of Lincoln (“Lincoln Shares”) on the closing date of the Transaction, and (b) 1,500,000 Lincoln Shares within five business days of the date on which Lincoln completes any issuance of Lincoln Shares that results in at least 28,500,000 Lincoln Shares issued and outstanding. The Bell Mountain Transaction is expected to closed in the first quarter of 2025.
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Summary:
The Bell Mountain property is located within the Fairview Peak caldera, a small Miocene (~19.2 Ma) volcanic center comprised of a thick sequence of rhyolite-dacite flows, flow domes, and pyroclastic rocks. Epithermal low-sulfidation gold-silver mineralization is hosted by calcite and quartz-calcite veins and stockwork associated with pervasive silicification. Veins and hydrothermal alteration are controlled by east northeast trending near-vertical structures and west-northwest cross structures. The precious metal-bearing minerals are electrum, argentite/acanthite, and native silver. To date, four main bodies of gold-silver mineralization (Varga, Spurr, Sphinx and East Ridge) have been defined by drilling. The larger Spurr and Varga zones are situated along the principal NE structural trend (Varga-Spurr fault), the Sphinx zone is controlled by a WNW cross structure (Sphinx fault). The East Ridge zone is controlled by a NE striking structure. The East Ridge Deposit consists of a single east-northeast trending quartz-calcite vein which dips steeply to the south.
At the Bell Mountain deposit gold-silver mineralization is strongly structurally controlled. The primary control is an east-northeast trending (~070o) zone of faulting, named the Varga-Spurr fault, which can be traced for more than 6000 feet (1.8 km). The Varga-Spurr fault dips steeply to the south and has experienced normal and dextral displacement. It is offset slightly in a right lateral sense by a set of northwest-trending, steeply dipping faults of similar strike length. Both fault sets have quartz-calcite veins and stockworks, gold-silver mineralization and pervasive silicification. Minor disseminated mineralization is present in silicified wallrocks. The intersection of the NE and NW vein sets, particularly in the Varga area, localized a significant volume of mineralization.
The quartz-calcite veining is rarely displayed as large planar veins, rather it is seen as variably intense stockwork zones of braided veins and veinlets which may be up to 40 meters wide. Within the stockwork the dips of individual veins are highly variable, but the overall dip of the body of mineralization as a whole is nearly vertical.
Mineralization at the property is separated into four deposit bodies – the Spurr deposit on the western end of the Varga-Spurr fault, the Varga deposit in the central part, the Sphinx deposit approximately 2000 feet (600 meters) southeast of the Varga on a northwest trending structure and the East Ridge deposit on an east-northeast trending structure approximately one mile (0.6 km) northeast of Varga. All four are composed of complex structurally controlled veins, stockworks and hydrothermal breccias. Between the Varga and the Spurr deposits, the east-northeast structure persists, but appears narrow, and it has had very little drilling. There were several other target areas which had returned attractive precious metal values, but had not been drilled.
Spurr Deposit
The Spurr vein strikes nearly east-west, dips 45 to 55 degrees to the south and is 10 to 15 meters wide. Recent work suggests that the dip may be steeper than that, as several drill holes did not penetrate the footwall of the vein. There are several small northwest trending crossing faults which offset the vein a few meters.
Calcite is the most abundant vein mineral in the Spurr deposit, with lesser amounts of quartz occurring as 1 to 20 centimeter veins concentrated near the vein walls. The calcite vein is generally strongly banded. The vein material is completely oxidized to depths of current drilling.
Surface and underground sampling suggests that the mineralization is largely confined to the vein, although adjacent altered wall rocks carry lower precious metals values which may be minable in an open pit mining scenario.
Varga Deposit
The Varga vein can be separated into two parts. The western 120 meters (eastward from the adit portal) is a relatively simple and planar vein structure ranging in width from 5 meters near the portal, to 14 meters (eastward) where it is cut by a N60W trending fault. This vein segment strikes N60E and dips 50 degrees to the south.
Unlike the Spurr zone, mineralization in the western portion of the Varga zone does extend some distance into the wall rocks. The Varga is about 500 meters (1640 ft) long, with its ends poorly defined.
This western portion of the vein is predominantly calcite with included rock fragments and slightly later quartz veining, brecciated in part, near the hanging wall. A few cross-cutting quartz veins trending N115-130E are present near the east end of this vein segment. Alteration is largely silicification close to the veins and weak argillic alteration away from the veins.
The eastern 70% of the Varga deposit is more complex, with the appearance of a braided vein system controlled by structures trending N70-80E and N120–130E. Near the fault dividing the Varga deposit, the veins are largely a quartz vein stockwork with little calcite.
Eastward, the vein system is an anastomosing set of 1.5m to 5m wide veins composed of both quartz and calcite. Quartz replacing bladed calcite textures is common. The eastern portion of the Varga deposit is a vein complex that overall has a nearly vertical dip, with a great deal of dip variation in individual veins.
Sphinx Deposit
The Sphinx vein system can be traced for more than 900 meters along strike by prospect pits, vein quartz float and a few trenches.
The Sphinx deposit contains at least two sub-parallel veins with other smaller splits which trend approximately North 70° West. Vein and stockwork widths in the crosscuts ranged from 10 to 30 feet (3 to 9 meters) and from nil to 5.1 g/t Au (Payne, 1982). Veins here are quartz with little calcite, are often banded and have a bluish tinge (Pinet, 1996). Minor silicification is present, surrounded by argillic alteration, which is stronger than elsewhere on the property. The veins dip steeply toward the southwest. The Sphinx deposit may be exposed at a somewhat deeper erosion level in the epithermal system due to the relative lack of calcite and better gold grades.
East Ridge Deposit
The East Ridge Deposit consists of a single east-northeast trending quartz-calcite vein which dips steeply to the south. Quartz is the predominant vein material with lessor calcite. The width of the vein is 1 to 4 meters. The vein is exposed in outcrops and surface cuts for approximately 250 meters.
The vein is cut by sparse northwest northeast trending fractures that locally host quartz-calcite veinlets and may continue out into the hanging wall for several meters. These crosscutting veins and fracture sets have not yet been tested by drilling. The west and east ends of the deposit are not well defined and are interpreted as weakening sheeted veinlets and stockwork zones. Drilling has not yet defined the limit of mineralization to the west and east ends.