Location and Access
The Langtry and Leviathon silver properties are contiguous mining prospects located in the central part of the Mojave Desert of Southern California U.S.A. They lie along the western flank of the Calico Mountains, about 10 miles northeast of Barstow in San Bernardino County. Access is good with paved county roads within a mile of the project. A rail shipping point is about five miles to the south.
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Land Status
The Langtry and Leviathon properties are wholly controlled by International Silver Inc. The Leviathon Property is held by sixty unpatented lode mining claims located by the Company per federal regulations. These mining claims cover about 1300 acres of land regulated by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The Langtry property consists of 413 acres of patented land with mineral rights. Title to this private land is currently in escrow, subject to a purchase agreement by International Silver Inc.
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History
The Mining District known as Calico in which the project is located, was once famous for its high grade silver mines. Between 13 and 20 million ounces of silver were produced from vein mining in the Calico District during the period from 1882 and 1896. Few production or exploration efforts were made in the district again until the late 1950’s. At that time the price of barite, an industrial mineral primarily used in the oil drilling industry, rose substantially. The Leviathon Mine was known to have a series of persistent and thick, +50ft wide veins zoned with ore grade barite in the upper portion and so it was placed into production to supply the industrial mineral. From 1957 to 1961 the mine was reportedly the largest barite producer on the west coast. It was only a few years later that exploration west and southwest of the Leviathon by Asarco and Superior Oil Company revealed an aerially extensive, near surface zone of disseminated silver- barite mineralization.
Eventually over 200 rotary holes were drilled and sampled by Superior Oil on the Langtry property. The work was checked for accuracy in accordance with mineral patent law at the time by engineers and geologists from the U.S. Dept of Interior. This phase of testing included new drilling and duplicate check analyses on samples collected under strict supervision. The potentially minable mineral resource calculated from this work was 22 million short tons with an average grade per ton of 2.37 troy ounces silver and 7.9% barite. A 1.3 opt Ag cutoff was used for the preliminary open pit outline, yielding an overall strip ratio of about 4:1 The project was never placed into production nor was additional exploration conducted to expand the resource. It is the intention of International Silver Inc. to continue exploration and development on the combined Langtry Leviathon project.
Geology and Mineralization
The large tonnage, modest grade disseminated silver - barite mineralization at Langtry is hosted by a brecciated sequence of Miocene age siltstones, sandstones, some thin bedded calcarenites and water lain tuffs that were deposited in a shallow lake environment. These sediments are underlain by volcanic flows and breccias of primarily dacitic to andesitic composition. At the Leviathon, these volcanic rocks are exposed as part of the faulted up range front and are host to the fault vein related barite - silver mineralization there. Both the disseminated and vein mineralization are believed formed from a common event with the host rock controlling the variation. Veining is extensive on the Leviathon property with 49 separate mineralized structures mapped, some with strike lengths of several thousand feet and widths over 50 feet. The vein network generally parallels a regional zone of northwestern wrench faulting that has both acted as a feeder for mineralization and during reactivations, displaced it.
Mineralization within the brecciated host rocks of the disseminated silver deposit consists of pervasive silicification with barite, grading with depth to quartz with lesser barite, minor hematite, calcite, and silver bearing sulfides, mostly acanthite with very fine grained native silver. Sphalerite and galena were identified from microscopy in grains typically smaller than 25 microns. Argentojarocite and cerargyrite are also reported locally. A separate stage event with magnetite and manganese oxide with silver mineralization is also known from the district.
Planned Development
International Silver Inc. expects to continue the exploration and development of the project with the expectation that the geologic resource now known to contain over 50 million ounces of silver and over a million tons of barium sulfate will be expanded and confirmed as minable. Bulk sampling for extensive metallurgical test work is planned as part of the phase I exploration program to be completed in 2009. Baseline environmental studies have been scheduled to begin as a prerequisite to mine permitting.
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