Goldsmith
Block
The Property
The recently secured Goldsmith Block comprises approximately 328 acres of private mineral rights immediately west of the flagship Rainbow Block, held with no royalty.
Its veins are part of the same Rainbow vein system that hosts the Company’s inferred Mineral Resource Estimate, and the historic Goldsmith Mine produced silver, gold, and zinc from the block.
Planned exploration includes drilling beneath the historic workings, and construction of the Goldsmith Decline is part of the Company’s 24-month underground exploration program.
The Northwest Project
In the 1940s and 1950s, Anaconda formulated the Northwest Project: a plan to construct the Ryan Shaft on the Goldsmith Block with a planned hoisting capacity of up to 14,000 tons per day, designed to a depth of 4,300 feet to hoist material from the Rainbow Block and the northwest and central portions of the Butte District.
The headframe was erected and shaft-sinking began, but the project was discontinued in 1959 when zinc mining ceased. It was never revisited.
The Company has Anaconda’s Northwest Project business plans in its possession, part of the century of district data informing today’s exploration.
Acreage per Butte Silver Bow County tax records and company documents. Northwest Project history per Anaconda Copper Mining Company internal reports (1946, 1955) on file with the Company, and The Montana Standard (February 16, 1960). No Mineral Resource Estimate has been prepared for the Goldsmith Block; exploration plans are forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties. See Important Notices.