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Rare Element Resources' revival and recent substantial advancement of the alkaline-igneous goldexploration model, coupled with the strong gold market, have renewed and intensified gold exploration interest in the Bear Lodge property.
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.
President Don Ranta comments,
"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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