Goldwedge Gold Project

Site Name

Primary: Goldwedge Gold Project
Secondary: Gold Wedge
Secondary: part of the Manhattan/Round Mountain Caldera program of Royal Standard Minerals

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Commodity

Primary: Silver
Primary: Gold

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Location

State: Nevada
County: Nye
District: Manhattan District

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Land Status

Land ownership: Private
Note: the land ownership field only identifies whether the area the mine is in is generally on public lands like Forest Service or BLM land, or if it is in an area that is generally private property. It does not definitively identify property status, nor does it indicate claim status or whether an area is open to prospecting. Always respect private property.

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Owner Name: Royal Standard
Percent: 100.0
Info Year: 2005

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Production

Not available

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Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Producer
Deposit Type: lode, replacement
Operation Type: Underground
Discovery Year: 1860
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y
Deposit Size: S

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Physiography

Not available

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Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Epithermal vein, Comstock

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Orebody

Form: tabular

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Structure

Type: L
Description: The Gold Wedge Deposit occurs at the intersection of north and northwest trending faults.The north-trending Reliance fault is mineralized in the mine area.

Type: R
Description: The upper plate of a thrust fault.

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Alterations

Not available

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Rocks

Name: Siltstone
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Early Ordovician

Name: Limestone
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Early Ordovician

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Gold
Gangue: Calcite
Gangue: Quartz
Gangue: Pyrite

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Comments

Comment (Workings): Historic workings consist of a 500 ft vertical shaft with five levels. Echo Bay and Round Mountain operated an open pit operation adjacent to the Gold Wedge property in the 1980s-1990s. The proposed underground mine will be developed by a 2,000-foot decline to a depth of 350 feet. By the end of 2005, Royal Standard had completed construction of its gold recovery plant at the Goldwedge Project, includimg two fresh water containment ponds, mill waste rock containment /leach pad area and a 15,000 square foot building to house the primary plus secondary grinding and the gravity recovery facilities. The building contains a crushing and screening plant, a wash plant, a jig recovery plant, ball mill, and a series of gold tables to complete gold recovery. The facility also includes a furnace for smelting/refining the gold concentrate product. The gravity separation should be sufficient to recover about 85 percent of the gold, with a chemical heap leach process bringing the total recovery to the mid-90 percent range.

Comment (Economic Factors): The Manhattan district has produced a total of approximately 1 million ounces of gold, including the adjacent East and West Pit deposits from which Echo Bay produced approximately 260,000 ounces at an average grade of 0.06 opt gold from 1990 to 1996. In 1997, proven and probable reserves for Gold Wedge were reported at 1.7 million tons of ore grading 0.13 opt Au, with a total resource of 5.3 million tons of ore grading 0.19 opt Au. In 2002, the property was reported to contain measured gold resources of 104,706 ounces at 0.494 opt, indicated resources of 47,052 ounces at 0.583 opt, and 394,626 ounces of inferred resources at 0.494 opt, all at a 0.15 opt cutoff grade. Output from the test mining program is forecast to be approximately 20,000 ounces of gold expected in 2006. A 2005 Technical Report estimated the current Goldwedge resource at 330,000 tons grading 0.310 opt gold based upon a geostatistical (kriged) estimate. Manual resource calculations indicated a larger measured and indicated resource with substantial inferred resources. The gold system is open along strike, down-dip and down-plunge toward the northwest. An updated resource, along with metallurgy and recovery statistics, should be available as test mining continues into 2007

Comment (Location): The project area is located within the Manhattan Mining District in the south part of the Toquima Range, about 13 miles south of the Round Mountain Gold Mine.

Comment (Development): The mining district was first organized in 1867; the name Manhattan was adopted in 1905 when John Humphrey found gold at the foot of April Fool Hill. By 1909 the district had developed into a number of productive high grade underground "vein" deposits containing coarse gold and numerous placer deposits. This type of production continued until 1947 and produced a total of 330,000 ounces of gold up to 1967. Recent exploration (1980s-1990s) was focused on building large bulk tonnage open pit reserves in the district. Houston Oil and Minerals, Freeport Exploration and Echo Bay Mines Ltd. completed major programs to delineate open pit reserves. This exploration resulted in the development of the East and West Pit Deposits (adjacent to Gold Wedge), which produced approximately 260,000 ounces at an average grade of 0.06 opt gold from 1990 to 1996. Sunshine Mining Co. considered an underground mine development in 1988 on the Gold Wedge deposit, but they backed off because of high land holding costs to Freeport and limited participating interest. Continued exploration by Crown Resources and others on MMC claims indicated thick (5+'-25') intersections of grades greater than 0.5 opt gold. The continued downturn in the gold market, tight corporate budgets and high holding costs for the properties forced companies to turn back the land positions to the claim owners. Currently, MMC controls approximately 4,000 feet of strike length extending more than 1100 ft from the Echo Bay open pit claims on the south end to the Manhattan Caldera margin on the northern end. All federal and state permitting to operate the Gold Wedge Mine at Manhattan was completed in 2003. Royal Standard expects the Gold Wedge mine to produce about 50,000 ounces a year once it reaches full production projected to be by the end of 2003. The underground mine will involve a 2,000-foot decline to a depth of 350 feet. The company expects to encounter the ore body at 88 feet. By late November 2004, Royal Standard had completed nearly 700 feet of decline and had crosscut the Gold Wedge mineralized horizon at the 6,742 levell the underground decline has been constructed to production size and standards and will be used to obtain a bulk sample in order to pursue a test mining program. Royal Standard plans to start a surface drilling program at Goldwedge in early January, 2006 to test the down- plunge extension of mineralization near the contact of the Manhattan caldera suggested by the current exploration model. The Gold Wedge deposit is considered to be the northern, high grade, underground extension of Echo Bay's West Pit deposit. The acquisition of a patent claim between Echo Bay's open pit and Royal Standard's Gold Wedge deposit has significantly increased the exploration potential and potential mineability of the Gold Wedge Deposit.

Comment (Commodity): Ore Materials: gold

Comment (Commodity): Gangue Materials: calcite, quartz, pyrite

Comment (Deposit): The Gold Wedge Deposit occurs at the intersection of north and northwest trending faults. In the deposit area, the north trending Reliance fault is mineralized in the Ordovician Zanzibar limestone and siltstone. The Zanzibar limestone is a very favorable host rock preserved in the upper plate of a thrust fault. The adjacent reclaimed Manhattan Gold Mine of Echo Bay/Round Mountain Gold Corp. is hosted by the Cambrian Gold Hill siltstone, which underlies the Zanzibar limestone. The Gold Wedge deposit is considered to be the northern, high grade, underground extension of Echo Bay Ltd.?s West Pit deposit. Based upon the results of 70 drill holes, primarily within the central zone, the gold mineralization occurs over a strike length of about 1,100 feet and more than 500 feet of vertical extent. The adjoining Echo Bay West Pit mine equivalent gold mineralized section is believed to occur below the geologic section that hosts the current Goldwedge resources. The down plunge extent of the deposit toward the north is untested, added resources could easily double the strike length of this deposit toward the north and northwest. Royal Standard has intersected high grade gold mineralization and the presence of a potentially viable near surface deposit immediately west (<500 feet) of the known Gold Wedge deposit.

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References

Reference (Deposit): Long, K.R., DeYoung, J.H., Jr., and Ludington, S.D., 1998, Database of significant deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the United States; Part A, Database description and analysis; part B, Digital database: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-206, 33 p., one 3.5 inch diskette.

Reference (Deposit): NBMG, 1994, MI-1993

Reference (Deposit): Ferguson, H.G., 1924, Geol. and Ore Deposits of the Manhattan District: USGS Bull 723, p. 151-153.

Reference (Deposit): http://www.royal-standard.com/RSM_projects_Gold_Wedge.htm
URL: http://www.royal-standard.com/RSM_projects_Gold_Wedge.htm

Reference (Deposit): Royal Standard Minerals Inc. website, Dec., 2005,

Reference (Deposit): NBMG MI-2002, MI-2003, MI-2004.

Reference (Deposit): Royal Standard Minerals Inc., press release, 12/10/02

Reference (Deposit): 2003 Nevada Division of Environmental Protection permitting notices, online.

Reference (Deposit): BLM Claims Microfiche, 1998.

Reference (Deposit): Kral, V.E., 1951, Mineral Resources of Nye Co.: NBMG Bull. 50, p. 125

Reference (Deposit): NBMG MI-96-NBMG MI-02

Reference (Deposit): Amer. Mines (1998), 1997

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Nevada Gold

Nevada has a total of 368 distinct gold districts. Of the of those, just 36 are major producers with production and/or reserves of over 1,000,000 ounces, 49 have production and/or reserves of over 100,000 ounces, with the rest having less than 100,000 ounces. Read more: Gold Districts of Nevada.