Western Pacific's Meridian Ridge property is located 30 miles southeast of Eureka, Nevada along the southern extension of the Battle Mountain/Eureka Trend in the northern end of Railroad Valley, White Pine County, Nevada. The Meridian Ridge area lies approximately one mile southwest of the previously mined Nighthawk Ridge Deposit (Easy Junior) which contained a mineable geologic reserve of 176,500 ounces of gold in July of 1989.
Ownership
100% owned (exploitation license)
Looking to JV
Geology
The geology of the Meridian Ridge area consists of Upper Devonian through Mississippian interbedded limestones, shales and conglomerates. The oldest unit exposed in the Meridian Ridge area is the dark olive-gray, massive bedded Devils Gate Limestone. Stratigraphically overlying the Devils Gate is the Pilot Shale. This unit consists of black, interbedded shale and siltstone and is increasingly calcareous near its contact with the Devils Gate.
Overlying the Pilot is the Joana Limestone. This unit is divided into a lower sandstone unit and an upper limestone unit. It is at the contact of the Joana Limestone and the overlying Chainman Shale that most of the silicification/jasperoids have developed along Meridian Ridge. This silicification is the result of fluids migrating up the southern continuation of the Nighthawk fault which strikes parallel to the ridge and dips 80° to the west. This structure is the primary conduit for localizing the mineralization at the Nighthawk Ridge deposit and can be traced in outcrop for five miles to the south of the deposit along Meridian Ridge.
Structure
The Eureka thrust belt is characterized by four east directed thrust sheets in the Meridian Ridge area. The following four thrusts lie (from bottom to top) in the Meridian Ridge area:
The Green Springs thrust which was first mapped by Humphrey in 1960. It outcrops a couple of miles east of the property area where it places Devonian carbonates on top of Mississippian Chainman Shale and Diamond Peak Formation.
The Easy Ridge thrust which is the range bounding structure located approximately one mile east of Meridian Ridge. It also places Devonian carbonates on top of Mississippian Diamond Peak Formation.
The Meridian Ridge thrust outcrops in the area of JR's claim block and forms the eastern edge of Meridian Ridge. It appears to disappear on the northern end of the ridge, however, a footwall splay continues northward where it places Mississippian Joana over Chainman Shale.
The Duckwater thrust is located west of the claim block and places Devonian carbonates over Diamond Peak Formation and locally Pennsylvanian Ely Limestone.
Mineralization
At the Nighthawk Ridge deposit the principal host rocks containing gold mineralization are the lower portion of the Mississippian Chainman Shale (75%) and the Joana Limestone (25%). The Pilot Shale, which hosts several gold deposits in White Pine County, and elsewhere, is reported to contain little or no gold mineralization at the Nighthawk Ridge deposit. All three units are exposed on Meridian Ridge and all three units contain significant silicification and alteration locally. During 1984-1985, Santa Fe Minerals drilled 16 holes in the area of which several were on the north end of Meridian Ridge (called Easy Junior Ridge by Santa Fe). Santa Fe encountered narrow intercepts of gold mineralization with the best hole containing 45 feet of 0.059 opt (Sirius Exploration Summary Report, Feb 2008). Follow-up drilling on this intercept, and style of mineralization, was not done since the target style they were after was mineralization in the lower Pilot Shale.
Historic Work
Gold, silver, lead, zinc and molybdenum exploration and mining have taken place around the Mount Hamilton area located 9.4 miles northeast of the Meridian Ridge area. Carlin-style gold mineralization has been mined at Nighthawk Ridge located one mile to the north and at Green Springs located 6.9 miles to the east. Recently, Midway Gold has been drilling out the Pan deposit located 9.8 miles to the northwest of the claim block. To date Western Pacific has completed geologic mapping, 1,037 soil samples and minor rock chip sampling over the 58 claim block. Additional rock chip sampling is warranted.
Both open pit low-grade tonnage and underground high grade potential exists in the area. Only limited drilling has been conducted on the east side of the claim block and no known drilling appears to have tested the down dip potential that may exist on the west side of the ridge. Both the continuation of the Nighthawk structure to the south and the down dip contact of the Chainman Shale and Joana Limestone to the west, provide the best targets for finding gold mineralization in the area.
