About Us

The mineralized zones and orebodies in the Cortez Trend area are generally aligned along northwest trending structural zones where intersecting with favorable lower plate carbonate host rocks.  The main known deposit trends are the Pipeline-Robertson, Cortez Hills and the original 1968 Cortez Mine, Horse Canyon-Mill Creek, Goldrush-Fourmile, Aspen and Buckhorn (see website figures below). Cortez Summit lies about 1.4 kilometers north-east of the north end of Nevada Gold Mines’ (“NGM”) 13.0 M oz Goldrush deposit (43-101 Technical Report effective 12/31/21 prepared for Barrick by NGM) and east of Barrick’s Fourmile 3.18 M oz resource (Barrick 2023 Annual Report). The Cortez Summit Property is contiguous with Barrick and NGM claims on all sides.

The two deposits referred to above, NGM’s Goldrush and Barrick’s Fourmile, are adjacent to Carlin’s Cortez Summit Property on the west side.  These are summarized in this website for the reader’s information.

Carlin’s primary target at Cortez Summit is Carlin-style mineralization in a structural and stratigraphic setting defined by geology, geochemistry and geophysics, referred to as the “Fourmile Structural Zone”*, which is subparallel to the alignment at the neighboring Goldrush/Fourmile reserve/resource. Much of this target is blind, being covered by Miocene-age post-mineral basaltic andesite and interlayered gravels. The “Fourmile Structural Zone” trends north-northwest for 4,500 ft. (1,370 m) within the southwestern part of the Property and extends an additional 4 miles (6.5 km) on Barrick property to the north.  Barrick geologists have defined a pattern of surface alteration and geochemical anomalies spatially associated with this structural zone (Barrick 2017 Q4 webcast). At Cortez Summit, Carlin geologists encountered a similar alteration and geochemistry pattern in limited upper plate rock exposures along Carlin’s “Fourmile Structural Zone” on the west edge of the Property.  The east extent of this alteration pattern is unknown, where it is concealed along almost the entire west side of the Property by post-mineral Miocene gravels and basalts but is noted in the exploration drill holes that penetrated the post mineral rocks. This alteration of the upper plate rocks on the west side, which trend under the post mineral cover, is displayed in the photos in the Photo Gallery.

*Note: Quotation marks used around ”Fourmile Structural Zone” are to distinguish this structural corridor interpreted by Carlin geologists on the southwest portion of the Cortez Summit Property from  Barrick’s high-grade Fourmile resource located approximately 1 km to the west on Barrick property.

The Property has only been partially explored, as drilling to date has tested just a small portion in the southwest corner of the 4 square mile claim block.  SJV17-1D is the only drillhole to have penetrated the favorable lower plate section that hosts the nearby Goldrush reserve/resource, and the Fourmile indicated and inferred resources. Hornfels alteration in upper plate rocks, considered to be produced by the thermal effects of the nearby Jurassic-age Mill Canyon quartz monzonite stock, has been encountered in most of the Carlin/Barrick holes drilled on the Property.  The contact thermal metamorphic zone around this stock is an important geological feature of high-grade mineralization at the Fourmile resource.  This geological environment extends east onto Cortez Summit, suggesting that in addition to the classic Carlin-type bedding replacement style mineralization displayed at Goldrush, the Property also has excellent potential for higher grade, more structurally controlled mineralization within the contact metamorphic aureole of the Mill Canyon stock.  Additional information is contained in the “Cortez Summit” project section.

Cortez Summit represents an excellent exploration opportunity located in one of the most well-endowed gold regions in North America.