The Soledad Mountain gold-silver deposit is best interpreted as a volcanic rock-hosted, low sulfidation, epithermal vein system of the low base metal type. Individual major veins formed by episodic deposition of quartz, adularia, sericite, calcite, and sparse sulfide minerals in open faults and fractures, coeval with adjacent sheeted and quartz-vein stockwork zones and quartz ±adularia ±sericite alteration of nearby wall-rocks. Other examples of this deposit class include districts such as Oatman (Arizona), Bullfrog (Nevada), Bodie (California), and Tayoltita (Mexico). Soledad Mountain contains an unusually large number of individual veins within a relatively small area by comparison to the examples cited. Post mineral faulting at Soledad Mountain has extensively sheared and brecciated the veins, most likely due to mid-Miocene to present-day wrench-fault tectonism between the nearby San Andreas and Garlock fault systems.

Gold and silver mineralization at Soledad Mountain occurs in a swarm of mainly northweststriking, subparallel to anastomosing, low-sulfidation, epithermal quartz veins that formed in faults and fractures within the Miocene rhyolitic volcanic units. Over 20 gold silver veins and related vein splits have been identified and modeled as part of the project resources. Veins generally strike N40°W and dip at moderate to high angles to the northeast and to the southwest, and occur in parallel and, locally, en echelon patterns over a total strike-length o ........

Today, the mining is done by open pit surface mining techniques requiring large equipment to excavate the mine in 20 foot benches. During this process, the drifts, tunnels and stopes from the previous underground mining will be encountered requiring precautions to be taken to avoid an unplanned collapse of underground workings.

The bench is divided into blocks or patterns. Drill patterns are designed and drilled on a certain spacing (i.e. 14’X14’, 16’X16’, etc.) to enable accurate sampling of the material being drilled. Since we mine 20’ benches, each hole is drilled to a predetermined depth, usually 23’ to ensure the bench is completely blasted. The cuttings from each drill hole are sampled to determine if that hole is ore (pay dirt) or waste. Once a pattern has been completely drilled, the holes will be loaded with a booster and ANFO (ammonia nitrate fuel oil) and capped with stemming. When all the drill holes have been filled, the loaded holes will be tied together and blasted.

The material is loaded into 100-ton haul trucks. The drivers receive the material type information by way of a computerized dispatching system and delivers the material to the appropriate destination. Waste material is placed on a dump outside the pit limits and ore (pay dirt), is delivered to the Primary Crusher to be either direct dumped in the crusher or stockpiled.

The rock mined to expose ore will be placed at its angle of repose with final composite slopes not ........

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