Geology, mineralization and exploration of the Gold Gulch copper/gold property, Greenlee County, Arizona

TheGoldGulch property is located in theMorenci Mining District approximately
two miles southwest of the Morenci open pit copper mine in Greenlee County, Arizona.
Immediately north of the project boundary, minor production of gold from the
placers in Gold Gulch and gold and silver from the Lakenan vein are reported in the
literature. The placer gold in Gold Gulch probably resulted from weathering of the
Lakenan and/or other small, sub-parallel veins. Several small pits, adits and shafts
were sunk historically to examine the surface oxide copper shows within the property.
Systematic exploration using geologicmapping, geochemical and geophysical surveys
and drilling were conducted by Phelps Dodge and Kennecott (Bear Creek) starting in
the 1960’s with copper as the target commodity. Ventura Gold Corporation acquired
the property in 2006 and assembled most of the old spatial data information into aGIS
database. Additional surface exploration and diamond drilling,with the principal objective
of evaluating the precious metals mineralization of the project area, were conducted.