The silver-rich Deer Trail Carbonate Replacement Deposit (CRD) Project in Piute County, Utah.
Encompassing the historic Deer Trail Mine and the adjoining Alunite Ridge area (6,500 Ha), MAG has consolidated these properties for the first time since the early 1980s.
Deer Trail lies along the same regional structure that hosts several mega-districts of similar age and style, so this consolidation allows us to control the entire system, apply an integrated district-scale exploration approach and leverage new technologies to aid in the search for new, large-scale mineralization along the path between the historic mines and a potential Porphyry Copper-Molybdenum centre.
MAG’s exploration focus at Deer Trail is to seek the source of the historically mined high-grade silver, gold, lead, zinc and copper CRD sulphides of the Deer Trail manto towards that potential porphyry centre. We expect to find larger-scale high-grade mineralization in the thick, high-potential Redwall Limestone that we’ve proven lies just below the less favourable interlayered sedimentary and limestone section that hosts the historic Deer Trail mine mineralization.
Deer Trail Project & Region
6,500
Hectares
100%
Earn-in on reasonable terms
High Grade
Historic silver mine
Same Fault
as Bingham & Tintic (its age peers)
Mining Friendly
Community & jurisdiction
Low / Simple
Mining costs / Metallurgy
Benefits of CRD Exploration
Large
Systems
Low / Simple
Mining costs / Metallurgy
Smaller
Environmental footprint
High Grade
A key differentiator
Porphyry
Centre and origin
MAG Progress at Deer Trail
2018
- Acquisition and Consolidation
2019
- Launched sustainability programs
2020
- Phase I Drilling: Successful
2021
- Phase II Drilling: Successful
2022
- Phase III Drilling: Successful
2023
- Carissa Zone
Discovery
2024
- Phase IV Drilling: Planned
Exploration Profile
Exploration at Deer Trail offers several strategic advantages, namely the fact that it shares the same regional fault as the renowned Bingham Canyon and Tintic mining districts, paving the way for potential discoveries of substantial porphyry and CRD deposits.
Our exploration thesis at Deer Trail is to pursue the known CRD deposits that may possibly be sourced from a Bingham-like porphyry. These porphyry “hub” targets are defined through extensive surface work showing strong coincident geochemical, geophysical and alteration anomalies.
These “hubs” are thought to be the source of the fluids that created the Project area’s manto, skarn and epithermal vein mineralization and pervasive alteration seen throughout the Deer Trail Project area including the Deer Trail and Carissa zones.
CRD – Skarn – Porphyry Continuum Model
1
Mantos, Gold Veins, Alteration and Dikes all related to Mo-Cu Porphyry
2
Mineralization is leakage from larger-scale mineralization below
3
Thick limestone section at depth with potential to host extensive CRD and mineralized skarn
4
Alteration halo
MAG is taking a disciplined, district-scale approach to exploration within this mining-friendly community and jurisdiction that also offers excellent infrastructure.
MAG launched our sustainability programs in 2019, demonstrating our dedication to responsible mining practices. In 2020, our drilling programs commenced, marking a significant step forward in unlocking the asset’s potential.
MAG’s Hub and Spoke Approach
Bingham Canyon is one of the great copper systems, featuring a porphyry copper surrounded by large-scale high-grade replacement (CRD) mineralization around it. The diagram to the right demonstrates this concept, with the central hub representing the porphyry and the spokes being structurally controlled mineralization radiating outward from it.
Bingham Canyon, Utah
‘Hub and Spoke’ Thesis
MAG’s approach at Deer Trail is to follow the spokes back to the hub in order to find the porphyry center and then additional spokes.
This map illustrates the inferred Deer Trail and Mt. Brigham porphyry hubs that lie west of the historic Deer Trail Mine “spoke”. To date, we have added at least three new mineralization pathways (spokes) to the Deer Trail system, validating our hub-and-spoke thesis.
Exploration Outlook
MAG is currently undertaking a Phase 3 and 4 drilling program designed to test the mineralization in the porphyry “hubs” inferred to underlie Mt. Brigham and Deer Trail Mountain.
The first hole was drilled to test the Alunite Ridge target on the south slope of Mt. Brigham. The Deer Trail Mountain was subsequently drilled. Initial drilling of the Alunite Ridge and Deer Trail Mountain hubs encountered porphyry-style alteration justifying further drilling. Future “spoke” drilling is also planned to offset the Carissa zone discovery holes, follow up other well-mineralized intercepts and test entirely new targets identified by recent geophysical surveys and soil surveys.
