|
Silver Creek Molybdenum ProjectThe Silver Creek molybdenum deposit is located about one mile east of Rico in Dolores County, Colorado in the Pioneer (Rico) Mining District on the western margin of the San Juan Mountains. The district was a producer of silver, copper, lead, and zinc from 1869 until the early 1970s and the Town owes its existence to mining. From the early 1870's to the Silver Panic of 1893, the District production was primarily of silver from bonanza grade, oxidized and supergene ores. Base metal production, with significant by-product silver and minor gold, dominated later production. The Rico-Argentine Mining Company consolidated the District in the 1930's and conducted active base metal and silver mining operations from 1936 to about 1971. Facilities from that activity remain on the property, including a 300 ton per day flotation mill. Anaconda Copper Company, at that time one of the largest mining companies in the world, entered the district in 1978 on an option agreement with Rico-Argentine, initially to explore the District for additional base metal deposits, but also with the theory that an underlying copper porphyry system might represent the source for the shallow, historically mined deposits.
Anaconda's exploration work resulted in the discovery of the Silver Creek molybdenum deposit at a depth of 4500 feet to 5000 feet below surface and prompted Anaconda's decision to purchase the Rico-Argentine properties. Anaconda's geologists determined a drill-indicated resource of 44 million tons grading approximately 0.31% Mo based on a cut-off grade (defined as the lower limit of economically mineable material) of 0.2% Mo (Cameron, et al, 1985).
Anaconda also estimated, based on comparison of Silver Creek to both the Mt. Emmons and Henderson molybdenum deposits, that the deposit would likely contain as much as 200 million tons grading 0.31% Mo, again based on an economic cut-off grade of 0.2% Mo. If this estimate is confirmed by additional drilling, that would make Silver Creek a world-class size deposit and one of the highest grade large molybdenum deposits in the world. In 1983, Anaconda's new parent company, Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), made the decision to close down Anaconda and exit the mining business worldwide, which ended the Rico exploration program. In later years, ARCO subsequently sold off the patented claims to local individuals and groups and allowed its unpatented claims to lapse. The Silver Creek deposit came to the attention of Mining & Environmental Services' personnel in 2006, while doing environmental and mine subsidence hazard studies in the area in support of planning for a large real-estate development. At that time, some of the properties in the area of the deposit were under an option agreement with a prospective residential land developer. In 2007, Mr. Levin was re-contacted by some of the landowners, who indicated that the land developer had dropped his option and inquired as to the possibility of marketing the property for its mineral potential. Outlook Resources was formed by Mr. Levin as a vehicle for integration of the land position over the deposit. During 2007, a junior exploration firm, Bolero Resources Inc., entered into a letter of intent with certain landowners in the area to acquire their holdings, but did not consummate the transaction or complete the integration of the lands over the deposit, and in February, 2008, Bolero formally agreed to permanently exit the district and relinquish all properties it had acquired. Later in 2008, another junior firm, Mega Moly, Inc., entered into a letter of intent with certain of the adjacent landowners, and was in the process of negotiating a joint venture investment arrangement with Outlook, but in the context of a severe financial crisis that affected the capital markets and the price of molybdenum, did not complete its contemplated transactions. Outlook Resources successfully weathered the downturn in global economic conditions, as well as a resulting decline in molybdenum prices, which began in late 2008. Molybdenum prices have now recovered substantially. During that period of economic uncertainty, we continued to move the project forward, taking opportunities for additional consolidation of land holdings in the molybdenum deposit area and performing necessary environmental assessment work in connection with legacy issues from historic mining operations. Now, with recovering molybdenum prices, we are confident that continued exploration investment to further delineate the Silver Creek deposit is justified. In general, to produce increasingly scarce resources for humankind at the point of optimal efficiency, each mineral deposit must be developed where it exists, once it becomes the next most economic deposit available to meet the next increment of demand, inclusive of all the costs of providing proper protection for the environment and fair, safe treatment of the workers. We believe that, due to its relative importance as a large and high-grade resource, the Silver Creek molybdenum deposit will be developed at some future point in time. Additional exploration, engineering and planning, permitting and then construction of mining facilities for extraction of the deposit will take many years, and will require substantial funding. Over that time, there will be numerous opportunities for stakeholder input and public comment. In association with the development of the Silver Creek resource, there is great potential for significant, long term economic benefits to Rico, Dolores County, and the region, without the need to make significant environmental or quality of life sacrifices to attain those benefits. In the interim, Outlook Resources intends to:
More information is available on our website: The approximate location of the Silver Creek Molybdenum resource area is displayed below in a plan view map and associated cross-section:
|
Anaconda's exploration work resulted in the discovery of the Silver Creek molybdenum deposit at a depth of 4500 feet to 5000 feet below surface and prompted Anaconda's decision to purchase the Rico-Argentine properties. Anaconda's geologists determined a drill-indicated resource of 44 million tons grading approximately 0.31% Mo based on a cut-off grade (defined as the lower limit of economically mineable material) of 0.2% Mo (Cameron, et al, 1985).