Mercedes
Geology
The Mercedes property area is underlain by a thick succession of shallow-marine shelf carbonate and siliciclastic rocks ranging in age from Jurassic to Cretaceous.
Overlying rhyolite volcanics, andesitic flow and breccia deposits have been deposited and preserved in at least three west-northwest thickening basins, on the margins of predominantly northwest trending basement arches. The andesite package, locally over 500 m thick, hosts all known economically mineralized gold-silver epithermal vein deposits on the Mercedes property. Gold and silver mineralization is generally best developed in the basal parts of the andesites in relative proximity to the contact zone with the underlying rhyolites. The productive parts of the low-sulphidation epithermal system range over a 200 to 300 m vertical interval.
The Mercedes property area is underlain by a thick succession of shallow-marine shelf carbonate and siliciclastic rocks ranging in age from Jurassic to Cretaceous.
The Mercedes rocks have been moderately to strongly structurally deformed resulting in basin-and-range type faulting and folding. A resulting almost ubiquitous cover of younger ‘conglomerate’ (accumulated ‘flash flood’ style debris flows representing accumulated eroded material from surrounding highlands) overlies the majority of the Mercedes concession package, infilling the three west-northwest trending basins.
Over 16 kilometers of gold-silver bearing epithermal low sulphidation veins have been identified within or along the margins of the andesite-filled basins, which constitute the primary exploration target on the property. Major veins, like those of the northwest-trending Mercedes vein system, typically trend N30º -70ºW at 60º to 90º dips northwest, following the major regional structural pattern.
The Mercedes mineralized system hosts economic gold-silver mineralization along of a strike of 4.2 km and remains open-ended towards the northwest. Other vein deposits occur across the 6 km wide Mercedes belt, variably trending from east-west to north-south, or even north-northeast. Veins typically dip at greater than 60º from the horizontal, but locally can range as low as 25º. Low angle listric/detachment faults are an important structural control on mineralization.
