Alaska Mineral Prospects 2017 

INTRODUCTION


         Purpose. The purpose of this report is intended to provide an introduction to the project and the general area. Richardson Exploration & Mining Company, LLC (REMCO) is seeking financing to continue exploration or is interested in leasing or selling the project to qualified purchasers.


         Topography, Climate. The area is typical interior Alaska providing rolling tree-covered hill with fairly significant steam incisions depending on stream size and slope. Permafrost is prevalent on north facing slopes typically covered with black spruce; southerly facing slopes are generally thawed and covered with birch and aspen, although some black spruce can occur here as well.


         Vertical relief is up to 2,000 feet in the district, but more moderate in the project area. The climate is typical Interior Alaska, sub-arctic, with wet summers and cold winters. Delta Junction weather is similar to the site: average annual precipitation is shown to be 11.6 inches. Average annual high and low temperatures are 38°F and 20.5°F, respectively, with a daily mean of 28.9°F.


Location & Access. 


         The Richardson project is located about 70 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. It is accessible by the Richardson Highway from Fairbanks to milepost 292.2. From this point on the Richardson Highway at the crest of a hill between Banner and Tenderfoot Creek, a
dirt road provides access to the project area to the northeast.

         Services, Pahrump, Nevada in 2012; however, successive samples of the dike, not at the same site, but in the general area, have not shown any gold content other than that taken described in the Hinkley Gulch geology section, above.


       Exploration to discover hard rock gold mineralization should be comprised of a methodical program consisting of further geochemical sampling, enhanced geophysical surveys, followed by trenching and drilling of prospective targets.



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          Don May has continued with exploration of the area. Several cuts have been made at the head of Hinkley Gulch in 2004 and 2005 to expose an acidic intrusive and a nearby east-west striking shear zone. The latter has provided a conduit for a basic intrusive with a limited horizontal expression.


         Scotty Wyers, Gulfport, Mississippi, acquired Polar Mining’s 25 claims in January 2008. He staked additional claims in the meantime to bring the total to 36 owned claims. The claims were quit claimed to Richardson Exploration & Mining Company, LLC in January 2015.
Scotty, his son Mark, wife Rebecca and Richard Hughes have conducted exploration on the claims since acquisition by Mr. Wyers. That exploration has been comprised of test pitting, trenching, geological mapping, and geochemical prospecting.


         Chris Groppel has continued to mine on Tenderfoot Creek by open pit methods. He investigated underground methods in 1998, but apparently decided not to use this method. The area northwest of the Ridgetop / Hinkley Gulch area has been prospected and mined
since gold was discovered in the district. A number of companies have explored and test mined the area over a number of years. Placer mining has been conducted on Banner, Democrat and
other creeks in the area.


         Tri-Valley acquired the area to the northwest of Ridge Top in 1987. A number of companies have explored that property since that acquisition in concert with Tri-Valley. In 1998 ASARCO Incorporated carried out geologic mapping and diamond drilling. Tri-Valley shipped
73 tons of mineralized material from the Democrat dike to the Grant Mill in Fairbanks. ASARCO estimated that the lode contained a million tons with a grade of 0.04 oz/ton.


​                                                                                                                       4



        The 2016 effort was intended to further define 2015 anomalous samples. The location of the samples are shown in Figure 4 & Figure 5 as well as Appendix A. One hard rock sample was taken from the rhyolite dike for gold assay during 2016. The 2015 site sampling was undertaken by a 3-man field crew supervised by Richard A.Hughes, Manager and part owner of REMCO. Alex Bertram, Fairbanks, Alaska, a graduate mining engineer, conducted the field sampling effort with support by Scotty Wyers, Gulfport, MS and President of REMCO. The 2015 sampling effort was conducted by a 4 person crew as shown in the assessment work documents for 2016.


         A hand held auger was used to obtain the samples. Depths of samples varied from 3⁄4 to over 7-feet in depth. The diameter of the auger was 1.5-inches and was capable of drilling to about 7 feet. Each sample was about one pound in size. Samples were placed in plastic zip lock bags for further analysis.


         The samples were delivered to the ALS Mineral’s Fairbanks facility for analysis. Code TL43-MEPKG 40-element procedure was chosen for analysis. The results of the analysis indicated several areas for follow up activity in the future; that activity will be comprised of more detailed geochemical sampling followed by trenching and/or drilling. ALS used ICP-MS for gold content determination and ICP-MS and AES methods for other elements/gold.


         Nine elements were chosen as possible pathfinders for gold-silver occurrences and subjected to further geo-statistical analysis. The results of the latter analysis are shown in Appendix C of this report.


         The detailed report from ALS is not included due to page limitations. A number of anomalous samples were returned from the effort. The hill immediately north of Hinkley Gulch is consistently anomalous.


         The best sample of the group was returned from a site adjacent to the access road near the Tenderfoot VABM. Other anomalous samples are shown on ridgetops about 1.25 miles north of this site. This indicates widespread alteration and
mineralization.


CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS


       The Richardson district offers a significant placer and hard rock gold mining opportunity that begs further exploration activity. The Richardson Lineament has provided a conduit for intrusive activity and for hydrothermal alteration and gold/silver mineralization. The alteration of the general area is intense with original rock textures and identification being indistinguishable in many instances. The presence of residual quartz at Ridge Top and other areas of the property are indicative of silica mobilization and vein deposition. This latter setting was the heart of Polar Mining’s 8,000 ounce placer gold mining operation. All the creeks draining the area, particularly Tenderfoot Creek, contain placer gold. Not all of these creeks appear to have been thoroughly mined and have significant potential.


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 RICHARDSON PROJECT REPORT 2016

Figure 4. Composite map of the project site showing the location of the subject claims in reference
to Tenderfoot VABM 1535. Geochemical sample sites are shown for each claim; discovery sites
are at the exact center of each claim.




6


 Figure 5. Claim group 2 showing geology, detailed sampling effort conducted during 2016 and
other surface features.

Figures 1 & 2. Statewide map showing location of the project in relation to the state; a more detailed map
is shown for the Project’s specific location. Hilltop is part of the district, and discussed in the Northern
Empire website.

SUMMARY


         The Richardson Project is comprised of 36 State of Alaska mining claims located in T 7 S, R 7 E, Fairbanks meridian. The claims are owned by Richardson Exploration and Mining Company, LLC.


         The project is located about 70 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska and very near to theRichardson Highway. It is road-accessible with turn off to the project from the RichardsonHighway at milepost 292.2. Infrastructure in the form of access and power is available.


         Gold was discovered in the district in 1888; the most productive period was 1905 to 1916. Gold has been produced from placer and hard rock sources in the district and amounts to a recorded 121,750 ounces, 2,300 ounces of which was from lode sources. At least thirteen thousand (13,000) ounces of recorded placer gold have been mined from the project site; the actual production is unknown. Tenderfoot Creek has been the highest producer with most gold recovered by underground methods. All creeks draining the project area have had gold production, but specific data is not available.


         The project site has significant placer and lode gold potential. Both stream and remnant (bench) placer sources could be present. The source of the placer gold in the creeks draining the project area is believed to be on the project site. The geology includes the existence of a major northwest oriented lineament, the Richardson Lineament, extensive and intensive alteration, and rhyolite dike intrusions. The lineament appears to be the conduit for intrusion and mineralization. Country rocks in the area include marble, gneiss and schist.


         Airborne geophysical mapping of the area has been undertaken by DGGS and includes resistivity and total magnetics. Resistivity surveys at 900 Hz and 7200 Hz indicate an anomalous low in the project area with intersecting flays. This is believed to indicate the occurrence of
sulfides in the area. Total magnetics indicate a low magnetic signature believed to indicate leaching and alteration of magnetic minerals.


         Wide spaced geochemical sampling has been conducted in the project area. Several anomalous area are indicated. Follow up trenching and sampling needs to be undertaken to define the anomalies more accurately and to determine possible gold grades and extent of mineralization.

         Tenderfoot Creek. Tenderfoot Creek drains southeast into the Tanana River, approximately 4.5 miles east of the town of Richardson (no longer active or occupied) on the Richardson Highway. The creek is approximately 6 miles long and has several small tributaries. Placer workings are found from its mouth on the Tanana River to about 4 miles upstream (Chapin, 1914). The
approximate center of the mining activity is in SW 1⁄4 SE 1⁄4 section 30, T7S, R8E, of the Fairbanks Meridian. The Richardson Highway follows the creek for several miles. Numerous unimproved roads provide access to the Tenderfoot drainage. Appendix A shows topography, some geology, sample sites, access roads and other features in the project area.


         Tenderfoot Creek has been the largest gold producer in the Richardson district. However, the gold from Tenderfoot Creek has the lowest fineness of any in the Yukon region (Chapin, 1914). Bundtzen and Reger (1977) reported a gold fineness of 670 for Tenderfoot Creek. Metz and Hawkins (1981) reported the average gold fineness to be 901. Glover (1920) reported a range in
gold fineness of 622 to 735 for Tenderfoot Creek. Mining operations occurred in the lower 4 miles of the creek. The alluvium ranges from 30 feet in thickness at the head of the creek to 155 feet near the mouth (Chapin, 1914). Pan concentrates contain amphibole, clinopyroxene, feldspar, garnet, gold, ilmenite, magnetite, quartz, sphene, and zircon (Bundtzen and Reger, 1977). Chapin (1914) reports that a piece of gold-bearing galena float was recovered during mining operations.
However, the bedrock source was not found.


         Banner Creek. Banner creek drains southward into the Tanana River. The approximate center of mining activity on Banner Creek is in SW 1⁄4 SW 1⁄4 section 10, T 7 S, R 7E, of the Fairbanks Meridian, approximately 2 miles north of the town of Richardson on the Richardson Highway. The creek is approximately 6 miles long and has several tributaries with associated placers. These include Buckeye Creek, Democrat Pup Creek, and Susie Creek (not identified on existing maps). Placer workings are found from just above the confluence of Democrat Pup Creek to the Tanana River (Olson and others, 1985). Numerous unimproved roads provide access to the Banner Creek drainage. It is locality 13 of Cobb and Eberlein (1980), who summarized relevant references under the ‘Banner Creek’.


         The placer gold fineness mined from Banner Creek ranged from 639.5 to 785 (Menzie and Foster, 1979). Metz and Hawkins (1981) reported the average gold fineness to be 737. Glover 1920 (?) reported a range in gold fineness of 738 to 798 for Banner Creek. Placer and churn-drill concentrates contain actinolite, arsenopyrite, biotite, cassiterite, chalcopyrite, dolomite, epidote, feldspar, fluorapatite, galena, garnet, gold, hornblende, ilmenite, magnetite, monazite, muscovite, quartz, pyrite, pyroxene, rutile, scheelite, sphene, stibnite, tourmaline, and zircon (Bundtzen and Reger, 1977). Mining along Banner Creek has included
open-cut and drifting methods (Ellsworth and Parker, 1911). In the Banner creek drainage, schist 
and gneiss in contact with the rhyolite dikes is hydrothermally altered (Swainbank and others, 1984).


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ALASKA MINING CLAIMS FOR SALE
GOLD PROSPECTING LOCATIONS

​​​​Infrastructure


         The project area is readily accessible by improved and unimproved roads from either the south (Delta Junction) or the north (Fairbanks / North Pole). Power lines run through the general area to provide power. The Alyeska Pipeline passes through the northeast side of the
project site in a northwest to southeast direction, but is unlikely to provide any support.


PARTIAL HISTORY OF RICHARDSON PROPERTY


         Two miners from the Fortymile district found gold flakes on Tenderfoot Creek in 1888. The site was too far from a supply camp, so they abandoned the site. Seventeen years later, after gold was discovered near Fairbanks, prospector E. H. Luce found gold on Tenderfoot Creek. 


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         News of his discovery attracted about a thousand people to the area. Between 1905 and 2014 the Tenderfoot (Richardson) district produced about 121,750 ounces of gold, 2,300 of which was from the Democrat Lode. The creek’s most productive years were 1905 to 1916. The gold bearing gravels in the district were 40 to 100 feet below the surface. Miners spent their winters drift mining
and washing gravels during the summer months.


         Fred Campbell is credited with the discovery of residual placer gold on the Ridge Top in about 1909 between Tenderfoot Creek and Buckeye/Banner Creeks. He hand-mined the area by himself for about 40 years. The quantity of gold he recovered is unknown.


        In about 1948 or 1949 Fred Campbell leased his claims to Gib Martin. Gib worked in Hinkley Gulch with an old International dozer, a pump, and sluice box. He worked his way up the Gulch and recovered a substantial, but unknown, quantity of gold. Gib’s last clean-up is better known. Gib hit a bonanza. Tury Anderson, later to become one of our State Representatives, happened to visit Gib shortly after this “last cleanup”. Tury asked Gib if he was all right and where his sons and wife were. Gib had been drinking heavily and Tury couldn’t get much information from him other than that Gib told Tury to lift up the covers on his bunk. Tury said he had never seen so much placer gold at one time. There were 31⁄2 pans mounded full of gold. Tury said the 14-inch pans were so full they couldn’t hold much more. It’s anybody’s guess how much, possibly about 4,500 to 5,000 ounces.


         Gib went from rags to riches and back. As the story goes, Gib took off for Fairbanks, did not pay his royalty to Fred, did not pay for the dozer or pumps, and so forth. He soon fell into the arms of a floozy in south Fairbanks. Leaving wife and family, he took off with this gold-digger for Mexico. After about six months, he made it back to his claims, now broke, only to have Fred ready to string him up. Gib’s dozer and equipment had been repossessed. His wife did take him back though, since he was able to convince her he had amnesia. He died within the year.


         Several successive miners leased the area, but it wasn’t until Gil Monroe and Eric Erickson tried in the 1970’s did they find a good showing on the Ridge Top. But after 3 years of struggling, they contacted the May family. The May family signed a lease with Monroe and Erickson in 1978 and proceeded with limited mining success in 1979. Three sons and two daughters and a daughter’s boyfriend joined the effort and were successful in recovering about 8,000 ounces of gold from a residual placer site at Ridge Top during the period 1979 to 1981.


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Figure 6. Topographic map of the project area showing claim boundaries and high placer potential streams in red on the

owned claims. Approximately 4.74 miles of streams within the project’s claims are believed to host placer mining potential.

         ​Alaska Gold Claims For Sale.

 RICHARDSON PROJECT REPORT 2016

Figure 3. Nuggets mined by Polar Exploration from the Ridge Top area. Don May reported that the
fineness was 670. The largest nugget is over 4 ounces.

         Placer gold is known to occur in streams passing through and draining from the project site and in remnant placers such as the Ridge Top mined by Polar Mining. Hinkley Gulch held incredibly rich placer gold, but is believed to have been completely mined. Other creeks having potential include Buckeye, Dublin Gulch, upper Tenderfoot Creek (4 branches), and Grizzly Gulch (not named on the map). The combined length of this potential, not including remnant placers, is about 25,000 feet. Overburden depth, permafrost, grade of gold, and other parameters are unknown. The potential for remnant perched gold bearing gravels is considered good. The highest potential areas include continuation of the Ridge Top area and the ridge in the Group 2 claim group as shown on the topographic map – Figure 6, etc.


         The placer potential streams need to be trenched or drilled to determine gold occurrence. Trenching would not be possible with deep overburden.


         Hard rock gold potential occurs throughout the project area as evidenced by placer gold occurrence in all streams in the area and the intensive/extensive alteration; further, the occurrence of rhyolite intrusions in the Hinkley Gulch area and possibly other sites is believed to be a possible association to mineralization. One sample taken by Scotty Wyers of the rhyolite dike in the Group 2 claims contained 0.089 oz/ton and 0.012 oz/ton silver of gold as assayed by Ray Grimmer Lab


                                                                                                             

 GEOLOGY & MINERALIZATION


​         The Richardson area is characterized by gentle slopes and broad, alluvium-filled valleys. The area is unglaciated and largely overlain by windblown silt, sand, and loess, locally up to 50 meters thick. The bedrock in the region is comprised of greenschist to amphibolite facies schist, marble, and gneiss that have been intruded by various igneous bodies (Bundtzen and Reger, 1977, p. 29).


        The schist and marble are probably Paleozoic, and the gneiss has a probable protolith of Precambrian and Paleozoic sedimentary and igneous rocks (Weber and others, 1978). The intrusive bodies in the area range in composition from rhyolite to andesite. Fine-grained rhyolite containing quartz and feldspar phenocrysts is common throughout the area (Olson and others,
1985). At the Democrat Lode, northwest of the project site, the rhyolite contains arsenopyrite, gold, and pyrite, and is albitic, clay, and sericite altered (R. J. Newberry, oral communication, 1998). Structurally, the Richardson region is cut by a northwest-trending fracture system termed the Richardson Lineament. The lineament appears to correspond with the distribution of the
rhyolite and other intrusive bodies and placer gold deposits (Bundtzen and Reger, 1977, p. 29).


​Also, the lineament tends to separate gneissic rocks to the northeast from schistose rocks to the
southwest (Swainbank and others, 1984).


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       Buckeye, Martha, Moore Creeks. Buckeye Creek drains southwest into Banner creek. The creek is roughly 4 miles long and has several tributaries with associated placers. This included Hinkley Gulch and Moore Creek. The mouth of Moore Creek is in NE 1⁄4, NE 1/4 section 14, T7S, R7E, of the Fairbanks Meridian. Martha Creek is reported to be on upper Buckeye Creek (Menzie
and Foster, 1979). Placer workings on Buckeye Creek are concentrated near the Hinkley Gulch area, but are also found along the lower half of the creek (Olson and others, 1985).


         Hinkley Gulch. Hinkley Gulch is a west, northwest-trending drainage that flows into Buckeye Creek. It is located approximately 1.2 miles north of the town of Richardson on the Richardson Highway in the NW 1⁄4 SW 1⁄4 section 14, T7S, R7E, of the Fairbanks meridian.


         At Hinkley Gulch and in the headwaters of Buckeye Creek, coarse-grained K-spar, quartz, and muscovite metagranite is in contact with epidote and actinolite hornfels, and a cut also exposes epidote and hornblende gneiss (Bundtzen and Reger, 1977). The rocks are hydrothermally altered and intensely fractured. The distinctive rock types are skarn and gneiss. The skarn contains garnet, epidote, and amphibole. The gneiss is white, is altered to kaolinite, and has experienced at least three episodes of quartz veining. Some of the quartz appears as purplish boulders, often associated with tourmaline (Swainbank and others, 1984). An assay of a porphyry rock chip sample collected from Hinkley Gulch contained 0.3 ppm Au, 45 ppm Cu, 67 ppm Pb, 52 ppm Zn, 7 ppm Mo, 9 ppm Sb, 21.9 ppm U, and 10.3 ppm Th. The gold fineness in pan concentrates from Hinkley Gulch averaged 670. (Bundtzen and Reger, 1977).


GEOPHYSICS


         DGGS published the results of airborne geophysical surveys for the area dated 2004. The products included 900 Hz coplanar apparent resistivity, 7200 Hz coplanar apparent resistivity, and total magnetics. The respective results are shown in Appendix D, E, and F.


Both of the airborne resistivity surveys show lows oriented in a northwestern direction nearly parallel to the Richardson Lineament passing through the claimed area of interest. A low also intersects this trend in a nearly east-west direction in close proximity to Hinkley Gulch. The survey is cut off to the west so the continuity through the northwestern trend is unknown.
The total magnetics results show similar patterns but modified in the project area to a lesser magnetic signature. A high exists to the northeast and southwest sides of the project site. The magnetics in the heart of the project are reduced to average; this suggests that magnetic minerals have been leached or chemically modified by hydrothermal action.


GEOCHEMICAL SAMPLING EFFORT & ANALYSIS


         A geochemical soil sample program was conducted during May and June of 2015 and June and July 2016. The objective was to delineate anomalous gold and pathfinder elements that could occur in the claim groups. A total of (80) samples from the C soil horizon were taken mostly on ridgelines in the area.


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​​               RICHARDSON EXPLORATION PROJECT 


        Prepared by
          Richard A. Hughes, PE
        318 Juneau Ave.
         Fairbanks, AK 99701
        Richardson
Project
















                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               For


              Richardson Exploration & Mining Company, LLC
         Fairbanks, AK   October, 2016

         In 1989 Tri-Valley continued exploration of the district and mined the Democrat Dike. The mining was contracted to a Montana firm, Empire Sand & Gravel; activity included construction of a processing plant and mining & treatment of 75,000 tons of mineralized material. About 2,300 ounces of raw gold was recovered. The plant was a typical placer plant and probably not too efficient.


        Tri-Valley did an innovative agreement with TsNIGRI (Central Research Institute of Geological Prospecting for Base and Precious Metals) of Moscow, Russia in 1991. TsNIGRI fielded a nine-member crew for much of the summer. Their work consisted of geologic mapping
and intensive soil, stream sediment, and rock geochemical surveys.


         In 2003 Tri-Valley implemented a two-phase reverse circulation program to confirm a suspected high grade potential deep placer target at First Chance Creek. Very high grade placer gold samples from shafts dug near the creek had been reported in 1906 era in Fairbanks Newspapers. Pacific Rim Geological, Fairbanks, was the project manager. The target was 2,000 yards long by 70 yards wide. Results indicated a potential inferred and probable resource of 38,000 ounces. The results from the second phase were not reported.


        In 2004, Tri-Valley formed Select Resources to undertake its mineral exploration and continued exploration of the area. That effort was comprised of geochemical sampling, drilling of core holes in the Democrat Dike area, etc.


         In 2012 Bluestone Resources, Inc. acquired Select Resources assets through a bankruptcy auction in October of the year. Bluestone has subsequently changed its name to Northern Empire Resources and has continued with extensive exploration of the area. The exploration has included geochemical sampling, trenching and sample assaying. Very impressive results have been returned from this effort. Further information can be viewed on their website.


PROPERTY DESCRIPTION


         A complete list of the claims referenced in this report is shown in Appendix B attached to this report. Figure 4, below also provides an exact location in reference to Tenderfoot VABM 1535 shown on topographic maps. Generally, however, the claims are located in section 13, 14,
15, 23 and 24 of T 7 S, R 7 E, Fairbanks meridian. Thirty-six (36) State of Alaska claims are included in the compliment. Thirty-three (33) are MTRSC, three (3) are traditional. The claims are divided into two (2) groups in accordance with continuity (contiguousness) affiliation as shown
in Appendix B and Figure 4. Figure 5 shows a more detailed map of group 2 claims and the location of all sample sites and geology of that claim area.         


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TABLE OF CONTENTS


SUMMARY                                                                                                                                                                                                    1


INTRODUCTION                                                                                                                                                                                           1


                   Purpose                                                                                                                                                                                     1
                   Location & Access                                                                                                                                                                   2
                   Infrastructure                                                                                                                                                                            
2


PARTIAL HISTORY OF RICHARDSON PROPERTY                                                                                                                                  2
PROPERTY DESCRIPTION                                                                                                                                                                         5
GEOLOGY & MINERALIZATION                                                                                                                                                                 7

                                                                                                                                                                           
                   Tenderfoot Creek                                                                                                                                                                     8 
                   Banner Creek                                                                                                                                                                           8
                   Buckeye, Martha, Moore Creeks                                                                                                                                            9
                   Hinkley Gulch                                                                                                                                                                           9


GEOPHYSICS                                                                                                                                                                                              9
GEOCHEMICAL SAMPLING EFFORT & ANALYSIS                                                                                  
                                             10
REFERENCES                                                                                                                                                                                            13


LIST OF FIGURES


Figure 1. State location map                                                                                                                                                                      2
Figure 2. Site location map                                                                                                                                                                        2
Figure 3. Pictures of Don May’s nuggets (Polar Mining)                                                                                                                        4
Figure 4. Large scale map of project area                                                                                                                                                6
Figure 5. Small scale map of Group 2 claim area                                                                                                                                    7
Figure 6. Placer potential map                                                                                                                                                                 11


APPENDICES


APPENDIX A – Topography, features, geology, sample sites, other

APPENDIX B – Property description / list of claims                                                                                                                              15
APPENDIX C – Geochemical sample analysis                                                                                                                                       16
APPENDIX D – 900 Hz Coplanar Apparent Resistivity                                                                                                                           17
APPENDIX E – 7200 Hz Coplanar Apparent Resistivity                                                                                                                         18
APPENDIX F – Total Magnetics                                                                                                                                                                19