The IVY Property (“IVY” or “Property”) is an early-stage copper (gold) exploration project consisting of 108 unpatented mining claims located within the Contact Mining District in northeastern Elko County, Nevada, 20 miles(32 km) southwest of the town of Jackpot and 5 miles (8 km) southwest of the small community of Contact (Figure 1). The claims are within 1 mile of State Highway 93, on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  The Property is 100% owned by Carlin Gold US, Inc. (“Carlin”, or “Company”), subject to a 1% net smelter production royalty on gold and silver and 0.75% on all other metals.

The exploration target at IVY is a copper-gold skarn deposit contained within a late Paleozoic (Lower Permian) carbonate sequence adjacent to a large Jurassic-age granodiorite stock.  An additional associated target is the potential for buried disseminated intrusive porphyry-style mineralization associated with the skarn zones.  Known copper mineralization occurs mainly in calc-silicate altered limestone/skarn exposed in numerous historic workings on the IVY claims, including prospect pits, shafts and adits.   Historic production from these workings is estimated to be minor.   The copper mineralization observed by the Company to date is widespread, distributed along a 2.9 km long northwest trending zone reaching widths of 1km. Mineralization occurs in sulfide-bearing skarn zones containing 1-3% disseminated pyrite, chalcopyrite and ±bornite and in oxidized zones of calc-silicate altered carbonate rocks containing secondary copper minerals.  Lesser covellite and chalcocite have also been described in a 2019 MSc thesis study of the skarns by L. Smith.  Skarn mineral assemblages contain varying amounts of garnet, vesuvianite, tremolite, wollastonite, clinopyroxene and calcite.  Northwest trending skarn alteration containing copper sulfides has been mapped for over 2 km as part of the MSc thesis, with an additional irregular skarn body mapped 0.6 km north of the main northwest trending zone. Carlin’s initial work encountered copper-bearing skarn mineralization west and south of these studied areas (Figure 2).

76 samples have been  collected by Carlin geologists from outcrop, subcrop and from dumps of old workings.  38 of the samples contained > 0.5% Cu, with 29 samples grading over 1.0% Cu.  The highest copper value (15.2% Cu) came from a small dump of an adit near the east contact of the Paleozoic section with the Jurassic granodiorite.  This sample also contained 1.7 ppm gold. 22 of the samples contain greater than 0.100 ppm Au.  Silver values ranged up to 231 ppm.  Lead and zinc values are low.  Additional surface rock sampling and alteration mapping is being completed to better characterize the surface expression of the mineralization.

Carlin geologists believe that the observed mineralization may represent “leakage” from a deeper intrusive system capable of generating skarn deposits in the carbonate units and potentially associated with buried disseminated porphyry-style mineralization.  A variety of intrusive rocks have been identified in addition to the larger granodiorite stock, including leucogranite, andesite porphyry (reported to locally contain secondary biotite), syenite dikes (also referred to as “albitized” zones) which cut the larger granodiorite stock, and  rhyolite dikes which intrude the calc-silicated wall rock and locally contain copper minerlization.

Public BLM records show that there has been no exploration drilling since permit filings started to be maintained in the mid-1970s.  This is generally consistent with Carlin’s field investigation which observed just one hole on the northern edge of the property, as well as small bits of small diameter (AQ) core from a backpack – style rig observed at one locality in the skarn zone.

The Contact Mining District was established in 1870 and was initially prospected for gold and silver.  It soon became evident, however, that copper was the principal commodity of value (USGS Bulletin 847, F.C. Schrader, 1937). A smelting furnace was built in 1897, but operations ceased shortly thereafter.  Intermittent production over short time intervals was carried out through 1950, mainly from quartz-filled fissures and alkali alteration zones in the granodiorite and in skarns at the north edge of the granodiorite contact with carbonate sedimentary rocks (Gibbons, MSc thesis, 1973).  This   historically most productive part of the district is centered near Contact, 4.5 miles (7.2 km) northeast of the IVY claims.  Prior exploration here, as reported by Faraday Copper Corp, has delineated an  oxidized resource grading 0.20% Cu, amenable to heap leach SX/EW extraction.  Most of this resource is hosted in sheeted quartz vein zones within the granodiorite.

A 1912 United States Geological Survey study (USGS Bulletin 497, F.C. Schrader) describes a 400 ft. .(122 m.)wide sulfide zone extending for 6,000 ft. (1,830 m.), lying about 1,200 ft. (366 m.)outboard (west) and parallel to the contact with the granodiorite stock.  It is wholly contained within the Company’s claims and is described as following the strike of the steeply dipping sedimentary rock package.  This report states that “Chalcopyrite, bornite and molybdenite are disseminated throughout silicified skarn consisting of garnet, epidote, diopside and iron oxides.”  Carlin’s initial investigation generally supports the USGS description of this feature, which is also coincident with the skarn zone studied in the Smith MSc Thesis (Figures 1 and 2).

Carlin is following up our initial encouragement at IVY with additional surface sampling and alteration mapping in order to establish areas for further refinement by geophysical surveys including induced polarization and possibly magnetics. .