Warrior
Warrior Project – High Grade Epithermal Gold
The Warrior project is located within the Walker Lane Trend of southern Nevada. The Walker Lane Trend is a world class mineral province that host numerous large gold, silver and copper deposits including the giant Round Mountain deposit (20Moz Au), Comstock (8.5Moz Au, 200Moz Ag), Yerington Porphyry (4Mt Cu) and Candelaria (230Moz Ag). The Walker Lane Trend has recorded production and reserves of 50Moz Au, 700Moz Ag and 4Mt of Cu.
Warrior is accessed via gravel state route 89 (Poleline Road) being some 25km southeast of State Hwy 361. The nearest town is Gabbs, located 32km to the northwest, with the regional centre of Tonopah being 80km SE of the Warrior Project also accessed via state route 89. The Warrior Project consists of 260, 20 acre claims and covers an area of 21km2 including the recently staked OMCO claim area situated 5km’s west of the Warrior claim block.
Sierra Nevada’s Warrior Project is a large historic mining centre contained within a substantial alteration system that is prospective for high-grade vein and disseminated Au-Ag epithermal, skarn breccia and carlin style deposits. Warrior is located just 15km’s from the world class Paradise Peak high sulphidation epithermal mine (2Moz Au & 40Moz Ag). Warrior hosts a large mining camp with four main historic mining centres each of which has been exploited for high grade epithermal mineralisation. Those mines, Warrior, Hillside, Cute Maid and Lou are situated along a distinct northeast alignment. The largest of the historic mining centres is Warrior where historical records from the 1920’s reveal bonanza grade veins were the focus of mining.
The Warrior Mine was discovered via a small outcropping Gossan in 1904. Mining at the Warrior Mine commenced in 1915 by early prospectors before acquisition by Olympic Mines Co. in 1921. Mining activities focused on near-surface NW orientated quartz veins which produced Au, Ag and Hg. Ore from these mines averaged approximately 31g/t Au and production ceased prior to the 1940’s, total records of production are not available. Historic mapping and sampling during this early mining phase has been used by Sierra Nevada to create a 3D model of the historic workings, veins, and structure at the Warrior Mine. The historic sampling demonstrates the very high-grade nature of the veins mined at the Warrior Mine.
AMOCO and Placid Oil acquired the exploration rights to the Warrior Project in the early 1980’s and completed 25 drillholes (2,680m) exploring for shallow deposits based on the Paradise Peak model. Better results reported from these holes include 3.05m @ 1.53g/t Au from Warrior NW (WAR 10), 1.52m @ 1.75g/t Au from Hillside (WAR 9-85), 3.05m @ 2.62g/t Au from Cute Maid (WAR 4-85), 1.52m @ 2.90g/t Au from Lou Mine Area (WAR 1-85). No further exploration had been undertaken within the project until Sierra Nevada took control of the project in 2014.
Since 2014 Sierra Nevada has explored the project in detail and acquired several datasets that define large scale and fertile hydrothermal systems synonymous with epithermal, skarn related and carlin style deposits. The company has conducted successful RC drilling, detailed mineral system mapping and targeting which has resulted in a suite of advanced high priority targets ready for further exploration and drill testing.
During 2022 and 2023 SNX completed 18 reverse circulation (RC) holes for 2,242m. Initial drilling having focused on testing the Warrior Mine Trend in both Gold Coin and Discovery shaft areas and in prospective northwest zones, where mineralisation appears to underlie a sequence of syn to post-mineralisation cover rocks.
Drill hole WARC007 successfully intercepted high-grade Au-Ag mineralisation close to historic underground workings returning 17.07m at 1.57g/t Au & 3.43g/t Ag, including 2.44m at 7.76g/t Au & 6.25g/t Ag. Follow-up hole WARC0022 successfully intercepted high-grade Au-Ag mineralisation up dip of WARC007 located to the south of historic underground workings returning 20.73m at 2.13g/t Au & 3.41g/t Ag, including 10.97m at 3.76g/t Au & 4.73g/t Ag. Scout hole WARC012, collared to investigate a blind target 1.5kms to the northwest of the Warrior mine area, returned highly anomalous gold and silver of 143.86m at 0.24g/t Au & 1.31g/t Ag, from beneath the post mineral cover rocks to the end of hole (at 353m). Importantly Au and Ag grades increase down hole with 36m at 0.71g/t Au including 2.44m at 3.06g/t Au and 4.88m at 2.30g/t Au from 317m returned to end of hole.
Recent vein characterisation sampling from historic mine dumps at Warrior returned exceptional results confirming the high-grade nature of the large epithermal gold system. Historic mine dumps were selectively sampled based on vein type to characterise the gold content of the various texturally different veins mined by historic miners across the camp. Significantly, four vein styles were selectively sampled and all recorded ore grade intercepts, indicating multiple phases of mineralisation are present with a peak result of 74g/t Au (sample W119) returned from the Warrior Mine.
5km’s to the west of Warrior is the OMCO claim area being adjacent to the historic OMCO mine, which produced gold and silver from the Olympic Au-Ag epithermal vein. The OMCO mine was worked intermittently between 1918 and 1939 (Vanderberg etal, 1937). By 1921, Knopf (1921) reports that the Olympic Vein had produced 35,000 tons of ore at a grade of between 22 to 28 g/t gold & silver, records of production post 1921 have not been located.
Mineralisation within the OMCO claim area shows similar controls and styles to those at the Olympic vein and fit comfortably within a low sulfidation epithermal model. The proximity of the OMCO Au-Ag epithermal targets to the historic OMCO mine and similarity in mineralisation style is encouraging for the prospectivity of the project area.
Three main targets, Kouta, Jezza and Stix have been identified across the OMCO property. Initial surface rock chip sampling of the vein systems has yielded high grade results up to 6.78ppm Au and 101ppm Ag at the Kouta target. In addition, OMCO hosts a large area of significant, high level, epithermal geochemical anomalism, and alteration within the Jezza target, defined by mapping, rock chip sampling and soil pXRF analysis. Jezza lies between the proven high-grade Au-Ag vein system at Kouta and the historic producing high-grade Olympic Au vein at the OMCO mine and remains to be drill tested.
For the latest information on exploration and drilling at the Warrior Project, please view our ASX Releases, and Corporate Presentations
