selena
The Selena property is a shallow-oxide, silver-gold-lead-zinc discovery made by Ridgeline in 2020. The property hosts a zoned Ag-Au-Pb-Zn Carbonate Replacement Deposit (CRD) with potentially open-pittable Ag-Au at Chinchilla, Juniper, Revival and Broken Egg as well as deeper high-grade potential at the CRD Zone. The project is located within the historic Limousine Butte district of the south Carlin-Trend with the claim block comprised of 467 contiguous federal lode claims totaling 39km². Historic and currently producing mines in the area including the Bald Mountain, Alligator Ridge, Yankee, Illipah and Golden Butte deposits. Freeport – McMoRan entered into a US $33M earn-in agreement with Falcon Butte Minerals on the adjacent Butte Valley Cu-Au porphyry project in October 2022.
On August 22, 2024, the company announce that it had entered into a transaction with South32 Limited (“South32” )., pursuant to which South32 can incur a minimum of US$ 10 million (of which US$ 2 million is guaranteed) in qualifying work expenditures over an initial five-year term to earn an initial 60% interest in Selena. South32 will retain further options to increase its interest to a total 80% interest for an additional $10 million in qualifying expenditures as well as providing Ridgeline with a debt facility that the company may draw upon to cover its portion of exploration and development costs through commercial production. Ridgeline will remain operator of the project and collect a 10% management fee through the first five years of the earn-in agreement.
Trenching, surface sampling and ~10,000m of RC and diamond core drilling have defined a mineralized footprint that outcrops at surface and extends 3.7+km to the E-W and over 2.5 km to the N-S with mineralization open in multiple directions. The project is located ~1km to the west of the Butte Valley copper-gold porphyry system (Freeport-McMoRan JV), which Ridgeline interprets as the primary source to mineralizing CRD fluids across the property. Highlight results from drilling at the Chinchilla, Juniper and Chinchilla Sulfide zones include:
Chinchilla
- SE22-045: 32.5 m grading 153.42 g/t Ag, 2.51% Pb, 1.60% Zn, 0.09 g/t Au, starting at 235 m true vertical depth (“TVD”) (Figure 1 & Figure 2)
- Including 6.1 m grading 480.52 g/t Ag, 12.0% Pb, and 6.39% Zn, 0.14 g/t Au in SE22-045
- Including 0.7 m grading 1,347.73 g/t Ag, 28.89% Pb and 12.02% Zn, 0.11 g/t Au
- Including 6.1 m grading 480.52 g/t Ag, 12.0% Pb, and 6.39% Zn, 0.14 g/t Au in SE22-045
- SE21-025: 44.2m grading 123.2 g/t Ag, 0.1 g/t Au, 1.5% Pb and 0.6% Zn starting at 232m TVD
- SE21-024: 10.7m grading 194.0 g/t Ag, 0.3 g/t Au, 2.0% Pb and 1.7% Zn starting at 191m TVD
Juniper
- LB-072: 0.3 m grading 6,667 g/t (0.67%) Ag, 7.7 g/t Au, 1.6% Pb, 0.2% Zn and 1.0 m grading 2,467.2 g/t (0.25%) Ag, 5.1 g/t Au, 1.1% Pb, 1.4% Zn within 7.7 m 725.2 g/t Ag, 1.5 g/t Au, 1.3% Pb, 0.9% Zn starting at 15.5 m TVD
Chinchilla Sulfide
- SE22-037: 3.0m grading 40.2 g/t Ag, 3.0 g/t Au, 0.2% Pb and 6.8% Zn within 15.3m grading 12.3 g/t Ag, 0.8 g/t Au, 0.07% Pb, 1.7% Zn starting at 731m TVD
Broken Egg
- SEBP-001: 0.9m grading 2.4 g/t Au, starting at surface (backpack drillhole)
Quick Facts
Deposit Type
Carbonate Replacement Style (CRD) Silver-Gold-Lead-Zinc
Distal Disseminated Silver-Gold
exploration target
Open-Pit, Silver – Gold (Oxide)
Underground, Silver-Gold-Lead-Zinc
previous explorers
Kerademex, Nevada Pacific Gold, Newmont, Placer Dome, US Gold Corp.
Historic Production/Resource
No
Geochemistry
Soil sampling, surface rock chips, trench sampling and a historical biogeochemical survey (sagebrush)
Geophysics
Gravity, Magnetics and IP Surveys
Geology
Mississippian to Pennsylvanian Ely Limestone overlying Mississippian to Devonian age Diamond Peak, Chainman, Joanna, Pilot, Guilmette and Simonson formations
Mapping
1:62,000 scale geology map, reconnaissance outcrop mapping
Drilling
Ridgeline – Thirty-Eight (38) reverse circulation drillholes completed in 2020-2022 totaling 8,285 meters
Historical operators – Kerademex & US Gold Corp. drilled 90+ shallow historic holes