UK-based mineral exploration and development company Sunrise Resources has established a new copper/silver/gold project in Nevada called Lake after its location in the Lake Mining District.

Sunrise says the project is located at the south-west end of the prospective Humboldt Range, which hosts various large-scale, current, planned and past producing gold and silver deposits.

Sunrise secured a low entry cost lease and option to purchase agreement over a mining claim covering silver/copper/gold mineralisation originally discovered in 1985 by BHP subsidiary Utah International. At the time, Utah International intersected grades of 0.73% copper, 31 g/t silver, 0.2 g/t gold in skarn-type mineralisation 50 m from the surface.

Sunrise finds in its own surface sampling from a field visit, grades closer to 198 g/t silver, 0.13% copper and 0.3 g/t gold.

The company says mineralisation on site occurs with a 450-m-long arsenic and antimony anomaly coincident with mineralised area within a regional level-level gold-in-rock anomaly that extends 1.5 km through the claim block.

The option to purchase and grants to the mining lease for the Lake project was agreed with a lessor called Rolf Thiele, which spans seven years but with extension options for it to span 21 years in total. Sunrise will pay the lessor $5 000 at the end of year one before payments rise by $2 500 a year up to a maximum of $20 000 a year by the end of year seven and in subsequent years. The payments can be offset against future royalty payment obligations. The lessor will be entitled to a 2% net smelter return royalty, which Sunrise can buy back for $500 000 at any time.

Sunrise also has the option to purchase the Lake project claim at any time during the lease period or extended lease period for a payment of $150 000.

Notably, Sunrise can proceed to mining under the 21-year lease agreement without ever purchasing the underlying mining claim.

"This exciting acquisition follows on from our recently announced decision to focus on precious and base metal projects [in the US and Australia]. Copper is a critical metal in the energy transition and has seen its price increase significantly over the past few years. Nevada is host to a number of large copper mining and development projects," says Sunrise executive chariperson Patrick Cheetham.

"With historical drill intersections of economically significant grades, the target is well-defined with a number of drill holes intersecting thick zones of skarn mineralisation from surface, a style of mineralisation that can host significant copper, silver and gold deposits and which, importantly, can also provide a vector to porphyry copper deposits.

“Projects of this calibre are hard to come by and the acquisition results from a long-standing programme of archival research and field reconnaissance. The path forward for this project is clear with the next steps already defined to include geophysical surveying and follow-up drilling as resources allow," he concludes.