Poker Game Mine
20 claims - 378.74 acres

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The Poker Game lode claims are a set of two claim blocks consisting of 20 individual mining claims along the central and southwestern portions of Slate Ridge, Esmeralda County. It is located within the Gold Point Mining District, which is noted for rich veins of gold and silver, as well as the base metal suites of copper, lead, zinc. The Poker Game lode claims strategically claim the mineral rights of historic and modern-day workings of the Gold Bug Mine, which has been renamed the Poker Game Mine. While several high-grade veins occur on the claims, the short-term prize are two ore stockpiles on the Full House claim set totaling about 20,000 tons. Recon samples taken from the stockpiles range from 3.39 ppm to 40.3 ppm gold!

The Gold Bug Mine operated from the late 1970s to mid 1990s and excavated and exposed a number of mineralized veins. One in particular is referred to herein as the Main Vein. The Gold Bug Mine operator dug a 300-foot long trench along strike of the Main Vein and loaded an initial heap leach pad where he intended to leach the ore with cyanide. The plastic liner apparently tore during construction so he built another, much larger leach pad. It is the trapezoidal-shaped structure in many of the photos. Unfortunately, he did all this work without a permit and one day the BLM drove by and asked what was going on and could they see his permit. As the story goes, he shot at their truck and they returned with an armada of law enforcement people whereupon they shut him down. Efforts to bring him back into compliance were too costly and he eventually abandoned the mine with only modest reclamation. The BLM has no records of the leach pad ever operating.

One of the Gold Bug Mine operator's accomplishments was a 12" thick concrete building pad that was about 60' x 80' where he likely had a crushing plant. The claims were owned by various people from the mid 1990s but were abandoned in 2010 following the State of Nevada's illegal mining claim tax. The company that had the ground at that time had a large claim footprint and it would have cost them tens of thousands of dollars to maintain them, so they dropped them.

Advanced Geologic came across the property in September 2010, took 4 samples and had them assayed. One sample came back at 1.3 ounces per ton gold! Advanced Geologic located four initial lode claims over the ore stockpiles and the Main Vein (Full House #1 – #4). Further reconnaissance sampling discovered additional mineralized areas and another four claims were quickly located. Advanced Geologic continued performing reconnaissance sampling and as good assay results came in, more claims were located, eventually consisting of 50 claims between 2012 - 2018. The Poker Game Mine footprint was reduced to the current 20 claims and are valid for the 2021-2022 mineral year.

The Main Vein on the Full House claim block is an anastomosing structure that has about 15 feet wide highgrade core. It is part of a larger set of veins and alteration halos that is a couple hundred feet wide and about 4,500 feet long. It becomes concealed under alluvium and volcanic ash to the southeast and faulted away in the northwest. Numerous historic and modern prospect digs dot the mineralized strike length. Most noteworthy is the Tom Shaw shaft that descends approximately 85 feet into the Main Vein. (Tom Shaw was the first gold and silver prospector in the area and he likely dug the shaft). The shaft is in poor condition and nobody has been down it yet, but confirms that the mineralization extends to this depth. The rock is relatively easy to dig and excavation can be done with a backhoe.

Advanced Geologic has conducted a number of small operations over the years mostly concentrating on assaying and leach tests. Leach tests conduced by McClelland Labs in Reno revealed that the gold could be leached with cyanide and recover between 88 – 92% of the available gold. We are currently waiting on 8 new leach tests preformed by ALS Labs in Reno (December 2019).

Initial metallic screen tests in 2011 showed that less that 20% of the gold was greater than 50 mesh, which meant that gravity recovery was not economical. However, in 2014 it was discovered that if the ore was crushed to 100 mesh, that 65% of the gold could be recovered. If crushed to 150 mesh, recovery was even better. This lead to Joint Venture investment in 2014 - 2015 with the partner who insisted on running the activity even though he had no mining or processing experience. The result was a failed operation that lead to the dissolution of the JV Agreement and a subsequent lawsuit that was judicated in 2017 in favor of Advanced Geologic. Nevertheless, the gravity separation method was successful in recovering gold. During that unfortunate process, the contractor built a make-shift shelter to protect the activities from the elements. Upon removing his equipment from the mine, he tore half the building down. The other half is still remnant today.

Subsequently and between 2016 – 2018, Advanced Geologic entered into two milling contracts. The first contractor successfully recovered over 8 ounces of gold from 7 tons of highgrade ore that was in Advanced Geologic's storage facility. The tests were preformed at the contractor's processing facility in Southern California. Revealing that there were coarse-grained knots or nuggets of free gold. There was enough coarse-grained gold to show that simply crushing to 100 mesh was not the only process necessary, but a coarse-grained recovery circuit needed to be incorporated into the system. Later that year, the milling contractor went to the mine and obtained another 12 tons of highgrade ore and returned to their facility in Southern California. They processed the ore and unfortunately, absconded with the gold.

The second milling contractor wanted to test the ore using a specific gravity separating system manufactured by Mount Baker Mining and Metal located in Bellingham, Washington. In the spring of 2017, a quarter ton of highgrade ore was transported to Washington and ran through their test plant. About 0.65 ounce was recovered, which solidified the milling contract. The contractor purchased a Mount Baker jaw crusher, impact mill, ball mill, two conveyors, and a shaker table. The equipment was delivered to the mine, except the ball mill, which was on back order. The equipment was set up, generators and a water truck rented, and test runs were conducted. Unfortunately and shortly thereafter, the contractor developed financial complications, and coupled with some health issues, the equipment was dismantled and removed from the mine.

In 2018, Advanced Geologic leased the mine to a crypto currency group that eventually fell on hard times and the lease was cancelled. Very little work was conducted at the mine.

In 2019, additional assays were performed and a second round of leachability tests were conducted - the results are pending. In addition, talks were initiated with drilling companies for quotes to drill the Main Vein. Talks were also generated to permit moving the ore stockpiles to an offsite location for processing. A site for a water well was planned.

2022 looks to be a very promising year and we look foward to assisting the new owners on developing the mine.