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United States

Bell Mountain Project

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Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StagePermitting
Commodities
  • Gold
  • Silver
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotThe Bell Mountain Project, located in Reno, Nevada in the Fairview mining district, is comprised of four gold-silver resource deposits, the Spurr, Varga, Sphinx and East Ridge deposits.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Bell Mountain Exploration Corp. (operator) 100 % Direct
Eros Resources Corp. 100 % Indirect
The Eros Resources Corp. controls 100% ownership of the Bell Mountain gold-silver property.

Bell Mountain Exploration Corp. (BMEC), a Nevada corporation, is a wholly owned and U.S. operating subsidiary of Eros.

Bell Mountain Exploration Corp., a Nevada Corporation, owns the possessory mineral rights on 174 unpatented lode claims and possessory surface rights on 6 unpatented mill site claims for a total of 180 claims collectively known as the Bell Mountain Property.

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Breccia pipe / Stockwork
  • Vein / narrow vein
  • Epithermal

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.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

CommodityUnitsLOM
Gold oz 60,056
Silver oz 408,498

Operational metrics

Metrics
Daily mining rate 7,500 tons *
Daily ore mining rate 5,000 tons *
Annual ore mining rate 1.5 M tons *
Waste tonnes, LOM 3,759 k tons *
Ore tonnes mined, LOM 4,907 k tons *
Total tonnes mined, LOM 8,665 k tons *
* According to 2017 study.

Production Costs

CommodityUnitsAverage
Cash costs Gold USD 758.86 / oz *  
Assumed price Silver USD 17.5 / oz *  
Assumed price Gold USD 1,300 / oz *  
* According to 2017 study / presentation.

Operating Costs

Currency2017
OP mining costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
Processing costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
G&A ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
Total operating costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2017 study.

Project Costs

MetricsUnitsLOM Total
Initial CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Total CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
OP OpEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Processing OpEx $M USD 20.4
G&A costs $M USD 3.9
Total OpEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Total Taxes $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Net revenue (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax Cash Flow (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax Cash Flow (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax NPV @ 5% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax NPV @ 5% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax IRR, %  ......  Subscribe
After-tax IRR, %  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax payback period, years  ......  Subscribe
After-tax payback period, years  ......  Subscribe

Required Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNamePhoneProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Oct 9, 2017
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Oct 9, 2017
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ........... Subscription required Subscription required Nov 29, 2023

Aerial view:

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