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The Bear Lodge property exposes extensive gold occurrences in a large igneous intrusive center. Adjacent to some of the gold targets are significant high-grade rare-earth-element (REEs) occurrences in carbonatite dikes within the same complex.
Some key parameters of this gold exploration model and the similarities between Bear Lodge and Cripple Creek are as follows:
- At Bear Lodge and Cripple Creek many surface rock-chip samples, collected by a variety of major companies over the last 30 years, carry gold values in excess of 1 g/t. Historically, at Bear Lodge the highest grade of these samples assayed over 14 g/t gold.
- Broad areas have strong (greater than or equal to 100 parts per billion {ppb} gold) and moderate (50 to 99 ppb gold) gold anomalies in rock-chip and soil samples. (100 ppb = 0.1 ppm or 0.1 g/t)
- Gold mineralization is structurally controlled and closely associated with widespread strong potassium feldspar-pyrite (+/- carbonate) alteration.
- Veinlets and wall rocks contain disseminated rare-earth-element minerals, and apatite crystals have rims enriched in rare-earth elements.
- Other anomalous elements that characterize mineralization in the complexes include potassium, tellurium, arsenic, antimony, molybdenum, barium, and strontium
- The Bear Lodge alkaline-igneous rocks, which are dominated by phonolitic and trachytic sills, dikes, and plugs (as well as numerous related late-stage intrusions and intrusive breccia bodies), could represent the upper levels of an alkaline-igneous system similar to that exposed at Cripple Creek.
"The rapid advancement in the geological-geochemical-geophysical understanding of the alkaline-igneous gold-exploration model is an exciting opportunity for Rare Element Resources. This model is based on cutting-edge exploration technology and we are well positioned with our property position to reap its advantages. The Bear Lodge property has a well-documented, hydrothermally altered and mineralized intrusive system with rock types, minerals, and structures that closely match major features of the alkaline-igneous gold-exploration model as it is expressed at Cripple Creek. Past exploration efforts paid little attention to the Bear Lodge potential for deeper-seated, high-grade gold deposits targeted by this model. In addition the escalating rise in gold price allows re-evaluation of the potential for the shallow low-grade, large tonnage deposits that had not been thoroughly explored. We now have an excellent gold-exploration venture, which is based on this model and operated by Newmont, one of the best gold-exploration teams in the mining industry."
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