(Updated July 21, 2023)
The Baxter prospect is a low-sulphidation epithermal Au-Ag-rich system underlain by felsic flows and domes within a package of volcanic derived tuffs, sediments and breccias. Success in the nearby Bruner District resulted in an option agreement being signed in February 2015 by Kinross Gold Corp. Kinross explored the property from February 2015 until October 2017, drilling 54 reverse circulation holes and discovering new shallow oxide gold mineralization at the Sinter Target before returning the property to Bravada.
Located approx. 5.6 miles southwest of the Highland property, the land package consists of 114 unpatented lode claims totalling 923 ha and is accessible year-round by good gravel roads. Initial sampling returned 16 of 51 samples with values from 1.0g/t to 21.2g/t Au, including seven samples >10g/t Au with up to 132g/t Ag. The silver to gold ratio is less than10:1, indicative of a gold-biased system.
The company's shallow drilling program in 2004 intersected narrow intervals of high-grade gold, including 1.5 meters of 9.12 g/t Au within 6.1 meters of 3.50 g/t Au beginning at 51.8 meters depth and 1.5 meters of 7.38 g/t Au within 10.7 meters of 2.00 g/t Au beginning at 47.2 meters. This mineralization lies along the northeastern margin of a graben, while low-grade gold intersected near the historic Baxter Mine appears to be in the footwall of the southwestern graben margin.
Kinross’ program consisted of adding mining claims, mapping, rock-chip and soil sampling, conducting detailed ground gravity and air-borne magnetics over the entire claim block, and conducting mineralogy studies to identify clay and other alteration products in surface and drill chips. In addition to verifying local high-grade concentrations of gold in grab samples from several veins, specific target areas were identified for drill testing. Five samples contain 10.1 to 43.7g/t Au of the 92 samples of vein, dump material, and wall rock that were collected. The remaining samples assay in the range of less than detection limits to 7.8g/t Au.
Kinross discovered a new zone of shallow, oxide gold mineralization at the Sinter target in 2016, which included a 6.1m intercept averaging 2.199 grams gold per ton beginning at 32m depth within a thicker interval of 32.0m averaging 0.880g/t gold. Other holes in the target area intersected gold mineralization at approximately the same horizon. A large, previously undrilled region located 500m to 1,000m northwest of the Sinter target also provided encouragement, with one hole intersecting 3.05m of 3.70g/t Au beginning at 198.6m depth within 9.14m of 1.38g/t Au. The region between this hole and the Sinter target has not been drilled.
The Company and Endeavour Silver signed a Definitive Agreement on July 18, 2023, whereby Endeavour Silver will have the right to explore and the option to earn an 85% interest in Baxter by, among other things, incurring US$4.5 million in exploration and development expenditures over a five-year period.
The Definitive Agreement provides that Endeavour shall make annual cash option payments of US$100,000 to Bravada (“Option Payments”), 50% of which may be paid in common shares of Endeavour at its sole discretion, and incur Exploration Expenditures on Baxter as follows (US$):
Year 1 - $ 250,000
Year 2 - $ 250,000
Year 3 - $ 500,000
Year 4 - $1,000,000
Year 5 - $2,000,000
