Target
Tungsten Skarn
Introduction
The Springer Project is located on the southeast margin of the Eugene Mountain Range, approximately 45 km southwest of Winnemucca. The project consists of 340 lode mineral claims (approximately 7,024 acres), 25 placer claims (approximately 500 acres) and fee lands (approximately 3,756 acres) for a total area of approximately 11,280 acres, including all mineral claims and fee lands. The Springer Facility and mineral resources are located entirely on private fee lands.
The Springer Facility is 100% owned by Springer Mining Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of EMC Metals Corp. and includes a 1,360-ft vertical shaft and underground workings, a stockpile of mineralized rock mined from underground, a tailings pond, a 1,000 ton per day mill with tungsten, molybdenum and sulphide flotation circuits, and certain water rights necessary for operation of the facility.
The Springer facility was originally owned by General Electric who spent $71 million on mine and mill construction, development and maintenance from 1979 through 2006 when the property was sold to Golden Predator Mines Inc. (now EMC Metals Corp.) for total consideration of US $4.5 million plus a $981,411 reclamation obligation which has been satisfied.
Click here for the 43-101 Technical Report for the Springer Tungsten Project
Geology
The Springer Facility is located on the eastern flank of the Eugene Mountains, a block-faulted horst of the Basin and Range tectonic province. The area is underlain by Mesozoic, metasedimentary rocks intruded by Cretaceous granitic rocks, which were later overlain by Tertiary volcanic rocks. The meta-sedimentary rocks are composed of pelitic sediments with thin beds of micritic limestone.
The scheelite-bearing, contact metasomatic skarn deposits are hosted within the limestone beds which are arranged in two general horizons each with several individual beds. The horizons strike north-northeast and dip steeply to the northwest and to the southeast. Scheelite is the only tungsten mineral identified in the skarns. It occurs in early veins and as finely disseminated grains along localized marble fronts. It is also associated with later alteration of garnet and pyroxene, where it occurs as coarse-grained aggregates and fine to medium-grained, euhedral dipyramidal crystals.
Historical Work
There were three main phases of exploration work conducted on the Springer Facility by three different owner/operators. These exploration periods include:
I. Exploration drilling and underground sampling by Nevada-Massachusetts Corporation (NMC) between 1925 and 1958;
II. Exploration drilling and underground channel sampling completed by General Electric (GE) and Utah International Inc (UII between during 1973 and 1982); and
III. Diamond drilling and reverse circulation drilling completed by EMC Metals in 2007 and 2008.
The NMC exploration work focused mainly within the mineralized beds located at the Stank and Springer-Humboldt Mines. No specific NMC sample or assay data of from any of the drifting, mining or drilling is available for any of these areas.
The exploration drilling and sampling completed by GE and UII focused primarily on the Sutton I and Sutton II areas. The vast majority of the modern exploration data was collected during this phase of work. GE and UII compiled most of the older NMC data, rehabilitated the historic underground workings, drilled 119 diamond core holes from surface and underground, extended the underground workings and analyzed approximately 3,200 samples.
EMC Metals completed the most recent exploration work in 2007 and 2008. During this time, seven diamond core and 251 reverse circulation (RC) drillholes were completed in three main areas. EMC Metals drilled 81 holes in the George beds, 79 holes in the Mill Beds and 51 holes in the Sutton I Beds. All of this drilling focused on near surface mineralization in order to evaluate the open pit potential. A few diamond core holes were located in the Sutton II areas for confirmation and expansion of the historical resources.
Springer Project NI43-101 Resource Estimation |
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Resource Category |
Cut-off |
Total Tonnes |
Grade |
Contained WO3 (Mlbs) |
Indicated |
0.30 |
274 |
0.619 |
3.392 |
Inferred |
0.30 |
1,097 |
0.562 |
12.330 |
The tungsten mill at Springer has been the focus of an aggressive rehabilitation and expansion program by the Company over the past two years. Work is nearly complete to make the primary milling and flotation circuits fully operational. The necessary equipment and supplies to complete these circuits are on site. Work remaining to make the tungsten processing facility fully operational includes the addition of a gravity circuit, rehabilitation and updating of the secondary processing circuit for the production of synthetic scheelite, reinstallation of the solvent extraction portion of the APT circuit, and completion of the installation of new automatic controls throughout the mill.
Metallurgical test work continues to verify that the processing plant is capable of producing a saleable scheelite concentrate product containing in excess of 50% WO3. The test work utilizes a combination of gravity separation and flotation. The secondary processing circuit and solvent extraction processes will only be utilized to produce APT.
Refitting of the metallurgical testing and assaying laboratories has also been completed. With this effort, work at Springer is now almost complete toward making Springer a fully functional 1,200 tpd tungsten processing facility, expanded from GE's 1,000 tpd design.
Current Program
In September 2008, the company suspended work on Springer and placed the facility on care and maintenance pending improvement in the global financial markets and strengthening in commodity prices. Upon restart, it is estimated the facility will take approximately 180 days to make operational.
Maps
 Springer Property Geology click on image to view enlarged |
 Springer Regional Geology click on image to view enlarged |
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 Springer Cross Section click on image to view enlarged |
 Nevada - North America Map click on image to view enlarged |
 Springer Overview click on image to view enlarged |
 Springer ore feeder click on image to view enlarged |
 Surface drilling to extend known areas of open pit tungsten mineralization immediately north of the Orphan Boy Pit click on image to view enlarged |
 Rope rescue training at the Springer Mine click on image to view enlarged |
 Rope rescue training at the Springer Mine click on image to view enlarged |
 Rope rescue training at the Springer Mine click on image to view enlarged |
 Rope rescue training at the Springer Mine click on image to view enlarged |
 Garnet - scheelite skarn showing scheelite fluorescence under UV light click on image to view enlarged |
