Yellow Band (MT)

• The Yellow Band project is located in Beaverhead County, 16 miles northwest of Dillon, Montana
• The unpatented mining claims are located in the historic Argenta Mining District within the Beaverhead National Forest in the Pioneer Mountains
• Existing historic gold and silver resources based on past work will be validated by new drilling, planned to begin in late April
• The Yellow Band consists of 337 unpatented mining claims.
  • The initial 20 claims were consolidated by a single landowner beginning in 1934 – and were kept in good standing ever since that time.
  • In 2002, three more claims were added. 
  • In 2021, Gold Express Mines, Inc. staked an additional 155 claims.
  • In 2023, Gold Express Mines, Inc. staked an additional 159 claims.
• The Yellow Band provides a unique opportunity with existing drilled resources. An additional upside exists to expand the resource along a 5-mile strike.
• Existing Historic Mineral Resource estimates (all categories) range from 1.2 MT at 0.378 opt Au to 1.9 MT at 0.283 opt Au with silver credit of ~2.7 opt Ag.

The geology of the Argenta Mining District and the Yellow Band project is dominated by the structures and stratigraphy of the Montana Disturbed Belt, also known as the Overthrust Belt, which stretches from the Brooks Range in Alaska south to the Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico.

In southwest Montana, this late-cretaceous age fold-and-thrust belt consists in part of the north-to northeast-trending, west-dipping imbricate Kelly thrust zone, which has been displaced southeastward a minimum of five miles over the underlying Ermont plate. The Kelley thrust at Yellow Band juxtaposes Mesoproterozoic Belt quartzite over Paleozoic-Mesozoic carbonate and clastic units. The low-angle zone of faulting strikes north to northeast with dip angles from 10° to 50° to the west. The regional thrusting is dated Late Cretaceous at 71-68 m.y.

The project covers a two-mile-long section of the Kelly imbricate thrust zone that is about half a mile thick on the ground. Late tertiary age basalt and latite porphyry rocks are also present. The YB rocks have been intruded by the 70-76my Mount TorreyBatholith to the north and west, and the undated Argenta stock to the southeast.

The geological structure is key to understanding Yellow Band mineralization and exploration. Steep dipping cross-faults (tear faults) often leave evidence of fracturing in the mineral zones. Cross faults strike north 10° east with steep to vertical dip and apparent left-lateral movement. Stratigraphic units have been displaced in the Yellow Band project by these structures, and the mineralization has been stepped up toward the north.

The Argenta mining district shows distinct characteristics of porphyry-skarn-replacement mineralization like other mining districts in the area. The Yellow Band project is within the outer halo of the Argenta district, about three miles from the outcropping Argenta stock. This does not directly indicate a relationship to porphyry-style mineralization, but shows characteristics of two major mineral deposit types which are cataloged by the USGS in Cox,et al (1992).

The Yellow Band deposit falls under the:

• Carbonate hosted gold-silver; and
• Gold on flat faults.

Yellow Band represents a complex structural breccia type, sediment-hosted gold deposit, and is similar insetting to the varied epithermal sediment-hosted gold deposits throughout the Great Basin tectonic province. Hydrothermal alteration is strongly present in the Jefferson Formation host rocks and is typical of sediment-hosted gold deposits. Alteration follows a sequence of pervasive vein-controlled calcite flooding, carbon mobilization, bleaching, calcification, re-crystallization (sometimes sanded), acid leaching, and at least three stages of silicification.

Critical geologic and gold mineralization control factors at Yellow Band:

• The mineralization is fine-to-coarse-grained native gold from 15 to 125 microns in size;
• There are a few sulfide minerals associated with gold, mostly pyrite and chalcopyrite;
• The gold mineralization is restricted to the quartz veins and silicified breccias associated with thrust faults in and cross-cutting, high-angle faults;
• The mineralized quartz veins and silicified breccias are commonly crushed, fractured, or intensely re-brecciated as a result of continued movement on the faults and hydrothermal activity.

• May 2022:  Completed Boaz Tunnel raise repairs allowing access to old mining areas for sampling; sample results were very positive;
• Summer 2023:  Regional geology work program completed;
• December 2023:  Drill Permit for resource confirmation granted;
• Completed three independent metallurgy studies and recent non-cyanide recovery results are promising;
• Completed new NI 43-101 report;
• A Plan of Operations for a resource confirmation drill program has been submitted to the U.S. Forest Service for review

The Company believes the existing mineral resource can be expanded by drilling the deeper “down-dip” and lateral “strike” extensions of the known systems. The probability of finding additional reserves at the Yellow Band is very good. The common suite of minerals in the system has a classic resemblance to other epithermal hot-spring gold deposits in Nevada and at other locations.