Quinton Hennigh on Rattlesnake Hills

Q What makes Rattlesnake a diatreme complex?

Quinton Hennigh: Rattlesnake is essentially, a composite of several vents of a certain type of volcano. Explosive eruptions occurred over a period of several thousand years as pulses of magma rose to the surface and came in contact with shallow groundwater. Upon contact, these waters were heated triggering eruptions and forming carrot-shaped vents extending deep into the ground.

Q. Why do anticipate gold being found in one?

QH Diatremes are hosts to gold mineralization in many gold deposits around the world such as Cripple Creek, Colorado and Rosia Montana, Romania. At Rattlesnake, these vents allowed deep, gold-bearing solutions to rise upwards where they precipitated gold at shallow levels.

Q. Is there anything unique about Rattlesnake?

QH What makes Rattlesnake exciting is the alkaline nature of the magmas that formed the volcanic rocks. Simply put, these magmas were rich in potassium and sodium. Volcanic rocks such as these are associated with numerous large gold deposits around the globe. Examples include Porgera, PNG, the Emperor Mine, Fiji and Cripple Creek, Colorado. Such “alkaline” gold deposits tend to have large volumes of low-grade mineralization amenable to bulk mining as well as a high grade component.

Q Are there earlier results at Rattlesnake?

QH The property has been drilled twice, once by American Copper and Nickel in the late 1980’s and again in the mid-1990’s by Newmont. An historic resource of about 400Koz Au was identified in two zones 500 m apart. From surface mapping, it is clear that the extent of alteration associated with gold mineralization is more extensive than the areas drilled. We hope to expand upon both of these zones and perhaps demonstrate that they are connected at depth.

Q When do the drills start turning at Rattlesnake?

QH We presently have two core drills on site that will work the remainder of 2008. We anticipate drilling a minimum of 20,000′ to evaluate the true extent of the system.

Q When do you anticipate the first publicly available results?

QH We should begin to have assays in hand by late August. Results will continue to come in for the remainder of 2008.