Integra Resources Corp., through its wholly-owned subsidiary, DeLamar Mining, has entered into an option agreement with Nevada Select Royalty Inc., a subsidiary of Ely Gold Royalties, to acquire its interest in an Idaho mineral lease encompassing the War Eagle gold-silver deposit. The project is located in the DeLamar District of southwestern Idaho, 3 kilometers east of Florida Mountain, Integra’s 100% owned gold-silver deposit.
In the War Mountain District, Integra had previously acquired the Carton Claim group comprising of six patented mining claims covering 45 acres and located 750 m north of the state lease.
“This represents the company’s third, significant gold-silver acquisition in 14 months in the prolific DeLamar,” said George Salamis, president and CEO of Integra Resources. “As is the case at DeLamar and Florida Mountain, the company believes that War Eagle presents tremendous opportunity to explore for known high-grade epithermal gold and silver vein mineralization.”
“War Eagle Mountain maintains its place in the mining history books for its high-grade gold-silver vein systems,” he added. “Sporadic, shallow drilling by previous operators on strike and at depth on these vein structures produced high-grade results over good widths, up to 32 grams/mt (metric tons) gold equivalent over 3 meters, but was never followed up with more extensive drilling.”
Upon exercise of the option, Nevada Select will transfer its right, title and interest in the state lease, subject to a 1% net smelter royalty on future production from the deposit payable to Ely Gold, to DeLamar Mining. Under the option agreement, Integra will pay Nevada Select a total of US$200,000 over a period of four years. Integra has the right to accelerate the payments and exercise of the option at any time prior to the fourth-year anniversary. The state lease is subject to an underlying 5% gross royalty payable to the state of Idaho.
“War Eagle Mountain, like Integra’s adjacent Florida Mountain and DeLamar Deposit, has a rich history of high-grade gold-silver production dating back to the late 1800s,” Salamis said. “The War Eagle-Florida-DeLamar geological settings, all hosting low sulphidation epithermal gold-silver, are genetically related to the same mineralization forming event that occurred roughly 16 million years ago.”
Based on records from the 1800s and from open-pit mining at DeLamar and Florida Mountain, mineralized material from War Eagle was obtained in greater amounts from far less material mined, so were of higher unit value per ton than any other mining operation in the district, according to Salamis. “Integra seeks to demonstrate this theory through exploration of War Eagle in 2019 and beyond,” he added.
