Equity Metals acquiring Arlington gold property, British Columbia; Silver Queen update
Equity Metals Corp, [TSXV: EQTY] reported it has signed a letter agreement with Origen Resources Inc. [CSE: ORGN] on November 5, 2024 to earn a 100% interest in nine claims, totaling 3,583.89 ha, located within the Boundary District of south-central British Columbia known as the Arlington property.
The Arlington agreement, which is subject to TSX Venture Exchange acceptance, provides that Equity may earn a 100% interest in the Arlington property by meeting the following obligations to Origen, all by the first anniversary of regulatory approval: making cash payments totaling $130,000 ($30,000 of which is reimbursement of costs associated with the Bond posted in regards to the current drill permit to be assigned to Equity); incurring exploration expenditures of $250,000 on the Arlington Property; and issuing shares valued at $200,000 within 7 days of regulatory approval; and issuing additional shares valued at $200,000, or 2 million shares, whichever is greater, by the first anniversary of regulatory approval.
Origen will retain a royalty of 2% of net smelter returns, provided that the Company may purchase 1% of such royalty at any time for the price of $1,000,000.
The Arlington Au-Cu-Ag Property is located in the West Kettle River Valley in southern British Columbia; it is 17 km north of the community of Beaverdell and 65 km south of Kelowna within the Greenwood Mining Division.
The Arlington Au-Cu-Ag property was explored as early as 1888, with modern exploration on the property occurring in several stages from the early 1970’s to 1996, and most recently from 2015 to 2022. The claim position has been steadily expanded since initial staking by the vendors in 2015 and now totals nine claims.
Work on the Arlington property by the vendors includes surface reconnaissance rock chip and grab sampling, several phases of soil sampling and targeted VLF and surface magnetic geophysical surveys over the resulting geochemical anomalies. Sampling successfully confirmed the high-grade nature of the known mineral occurrences in the northern claims, returning strongly anomalous gold, silver and copper results including: 11.7g/t Au, 211g/t Ag and 3.22% Cu (grab); 6.8g/t Au and 2.0g/t Ag (grab) and 1.3g/t Au, 31g/t Ag and 1.2% Cu (grab).
Work in the more recently staked southern claims has identified a broad Au-Ag-Cu anomaly, extending approximately 2,000m in a N-S direction and 1,000m in an E-W direction. Gold values range from 15-2,300 ppb, with associated anomalous values of As, Bi, Te and As. Targets in this area include gold-enriched epithermal-styled veins and Au/Cu-enriched disseminated to massive magnetite replacement bodies. Historic Au-placer deposits were mined in the main drainage transecting the soil anomaly.
An additional Cu-Mo-Ag soil anomaly was identified just 750m northeast of the Au-Ag-Cu anomaly and extends over 500m of strike-length and is open laterally to the northeast. The anomaly is spatially associated with strong argillic alteration in the host lithologies, possibly representing an additional porphyry-related target at depth for further follow-up and exploration.
Recent exploration on the property has greatly expanded its prospectivity with the identification of two new polymetallic surface soil anomalies extending over a 3.0km in cumulative strike length.
Three separate targets have been identified on the property for immediate follow-up: High-grade Au-enriched poly-metallic quartz veins (potentially analogous to veins at the Beaverdell Mine); Au-Cu magnetite skarn deposits (potentially analogous to the Buckhorn Mine); and a Cu-Ag-Mo porphyry system
Initial work on the project by Equity will include detailed soil sampling, geological mapping, prospecting and potentially trenching toward further refinement of the known targets to be followed by initial drilling in 2025.
The company also reports that drilling continues on the No. 3 Vein North target as part of its Fall ’24 exploration program on the property. Twelve core holes totalling 4152 metres have been completed to date of the 14 holes planned for this target. This is a new target area for the company, which could potentially extend the No. 3 Vein deposit a further 300 metres northwest.
The No. 3 Vein North area has been previously tested by limited historical drilling, limited underground development, and minor historical mining. Initial drilling on the target is intended to confirm the encouraging historical drill results and then test lateral and downdip extensions of the higher-grade zones. Logging and sampling of the holes is in progress and new assay results are anticipated over the coming weeks.
Four additional follow up holes are planned for the Camp Deposit and Camp North targets and will be added to the current drill program.
The Silver Queen Project is a premier gold-silver property with over 100 years of historic exploration and development and is located adjacent to power, roads and rail with significant mining infrastructure.
The Silver Queen property consists of 46 mineral claims, 17 crown grants, and two surface Crown grants totalling 18,871ha with no underlying royalties. Mineralization is hosted by a series of epithermal veins distributed over a 6 sq km area. An updated NI43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate was detailed January 16, 2023.
Equity Metals is a member of the Malaspina-Manex Group. The company owns 100% interest, with no underlying royalty, in the Silver Queen project. The company also has a controlling JV interest (57.49%) in the Monument Diamond project, NWT, strategically located in the Lac De Gras district within 40 km of both the Ekati and Diavik diamond mines.