Location: 100 miles NE of Reno, Nevada with freeway access
Area: Approx 14 square miles
Minerals: Gold, silver
Ownership: Option to earn up to 100% from Newmont Mining
Status: Advanced exploration; NI 43-101 resource established

43-101 Technical Report

New Resources on Historically Rich Ground

The Wilco project's rich history dates back more than 100 years and includes heap leach extraction by Western States in the early 1990s. Numerous significant gold discoveries have occurred since 1905, and drilling by majors such as Freeport Exploration, Santa Fe and Newmont Mining has defined a number of targets never fully tested. 

Exploring under an option agreement with Newmont Mining, Rye Patch has defined two key gold zones with resources to date of 625,500 ounces measured and indicated and 1,124,700 ounces inferred. The company has completed more than 19,000 metres of reverse circulation drilling and 900 metres of core drilling planned in 2009 to upgrade and expand the resource.

The Wilco claims are located in north-central Nevada, approximately 100 miles northeast of Reno near the Colado-Coal Canyon exit on the Interstate 80 freeway. The town of Lovelock (pop. 2000) lies only six miles south. The property is readily accessed by I-80 and the Coal Canyon road which transects the property. Various dirt roads and tracks provide additional access.

The Newmont Agreement

Rye Patch can earn a 100% interest in the Wilco project from Newmont Mining by spending $3 million in exploration and development on the project by December 2010. Newmont can also elect to regain up to a 70% interest in the project by spending an additional $20 million in development work.

2008 Drilling: New Target and Large Porphyry Potential

Phase 2 drilling in 2008 opened up the new North Basin target and indicated potential for a large gold porphyry system. Drilling in Phase 2 totaled 9,841 metres (32,290 feet) in 39 RC holes. Our October 30, 2008 News Release provides an excellent overview of 2008 drilling and exploration. 

Expanding the Willard and Colado Resources

Drilling at Wilco has focused on the Willard and Colado Zones, where a new NI 43-101 resource was announced in April 2008. The new figures upgraded a portion of the resource to the measured category and increased indicated resources 72%. Inferred resources also expanded significantly. The figures are summarized below:

Resource Estimate

On April 30th Rye Patch Gold announced its new NI43-101 for its 100% controlled Wilco project based on the Company's 2007 drill results in the Willard mine area and the Colado resource area. The new resource shows an upgrade of a portion of the resource to the measured category, a 72% increase in the indicated gold ounces, and a significant increase in the inferred gold ounces from the previously released (September 06, 2007) resource estimate. The majority of the new ounces are captured in the Section Line discovery located at the Willard mine and within the Colado resource area. The Willard and Colado resource estimates use various cutoffs for oxide and sulphide gold content. A summary, by deposit area, is tabulated below:

Table 1: New NI43-101 Wilco Resource Estimate

⁽¹⁾ Measured and Indicated resource is reported at 0.0056 opt Au for oxide mineralisation and 0.042 opt Au for sulphide mineralisation. The Inferred resource is reported at 0.0056 opt Au for oxide, sulphide and carbonaceous ore types; however, a higher opt Au cut-off grade may be required to upgrade the inferred resource to the measured and indicated resource category. NI43-101 resource includes Rye Patch's 2007 drill results

Scott E. Wilson Consulting, Inc. (SEWC) of Denver, Colorado completed the new resource estimate under the direction of Scott E. Wilson who is a qualified person as defined by NI43-101.

The new gold resource estimate is based on 3-D geologic models that incorporated over 32,000 individual assays from 565 reverse circulation and 11 core drillholes - 394 reverse circulation and 8 core drillholes in Willard and 181 reverse circulation and 3 core drillholes in Colado. The new resource also includes Rye Patch's recently completed phase 1 drilling, comprised of 48 reverse circulation drillholes and 4 core holes. Block model grades were interpolated from ten-foot down-the-hole composites using ordinary kriging. High grade outliers at Colado were capped prior to compositing based on a statistical review of the gold assays. No capping was required at Willard.

SEWC used industry accepted standards to reclassify this new resource. Geologic interpretations were incorporated into the new resource which gives greater confidence in the resource estimate. Cut off grades were calculated based on historic recoveries at the Willard mine as well as by referencing up-to-date costing structures that are available to the public.

SEWC classified the Colado and Willard resources by a combination of distance to the nearest sample, the number of samples, and number of holes used to estimate a block, while also taking into account project history, database quality, sample integrity and geologic understanding.

Mineralization

Both the Willard and Colado areas host epithermal, low-sulfidation (quartz adularia) type deposits. 

Colado Resource Area

Gold mineralization at Colado, which begins at surface and gently dips to the west, is in a flat-lying zone measuring 1,600 X 2,000 ft by up to 450 ft thick. The deposit is situated at the contact between Tertiary volcanics above and Mesozoic sediments below. Gold mineralization within the zone is very consistent, measuring on average between 0.01 and 0.02 opt gold. Distinct higher-grade zones have been identified within the Colado resource and may represent high-grade, structurally controlled feeders for the mineralization.

Willard Hill Resource Area

Gold mineralization at Willard Hill is controlled by both strata and structure. The near surface deposit covers an area of approximately 2,700 by 2,700 feet (using an 0.01 opt cutoff). Within this deposit are two major and four minor structural zones containing higher-grade gold mineralization. Gold at Willard Hill is closely associated with breccias, silicification, drusy quartz veins and microveinlets.

Detailed Project History

Gold (with minor copper and silver values) and antimony were produced in the Willard mine area between 1905 and 1951. The two old Willard mines produced free-milling gold from surface exposures. Antimony was produced at the Johnson-Heizer, Adriene and Rosal mines.

Freeport Exploration Company initiated mineral exploration in the Wilco project area in late 1979 and early 1980. Four years later, a joint venture was formed between Southern Pacific Land Company and Western States Minerals Corporation to explore on the property. Work focused mainly on the Willard Hill area. The 1985 estimates of reserves at the Willard Hill area of the Wilco Project were 660,000 tons in four zones, averaging 0.069 oz/t gold and 0.277 oz/t silver with a strip ratio of 1.4. This historical estimate was prepared by Western States Minerals Corp.in 1985 and provided here for historic perspective only. To Rye Patch's knowledge, this historical reserve estimate was not calculated using CIM standards on mineral resources and reserves, and the key assumptions, parameters and methods used to prepare this historical estimate are unknown. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral reserves, and Rye Patch has not relied upon this historical estimate in calculating the current mineral resources on the Wilco property. 

During the 1980's, Santa Fe explored the range front and pediment areas to the west and north of Willard Hill and discovered the Colado gold deposit. Drilling in 1987 defined a considerable tonnage of material in the 0.01 to 0.02 oz/t Au range, The Colado pediment prospect was further explored as a joint venture between Santa Fe and Amax Exploration from March 1989 to June 1992. Amax was looking for a large tonnage, low grade, Florida Canyon-type gold deposit. 

In 1993 and 1994, Santa Fe drilled 44 holes to test lateral and down-dip extensions of the hypothesized N-S feeder zone in the Colado resource.

Newmont conducted a 24 hole RC drill program on both the Colado and Willard areas in 2003.

Western States Minerals Corp. placed the Willard Mine, located in Section 36 of the Wilco Project, into production April 10, 1989. The small heap leach operation continued through to 1992, and an estimated 25,000 ounces of gold and 65,000 ounces of silver were recovered.

Geological Setting

The Wilco Project is situated on the western slopes of the West Humboldt Range. Most of the Wilco Project is underlain by sedimentary rocks of the Auld Lang Syne Group of Triassic and Jurassic age. The group is composed of generally north trending, west dipping shale, sandstone, quartzite and limestone rocks. 

The Humboldt Valley is a northeast-trending graben that makes up part of the Basin and Range Province. Normal step faults form the structural boundary between the valley graben and the horst of the West Humboldt Range, with Tertiary sediments and Quaternary alluvium composing the pediment slope near the range front. 

The West Humboldt Range consists mainly of lower to middle Mesozoic eugeosynclinal sediments partially covered by erosional remnants of extrusive Tertiary volcanic rocks. Mesozoic volcanics occur to the northeast in the Humboldt Range. The intrusion of a Middle Jurassic gabbroic complex, exposed to the south, caused folding and uplift of the previously deposited Mesozoic sediments. There is a thrust contact exposed at the southern edge of the Wilco Project south of Coal Canyon between the Mesozoic siltstone unit, which hosts mineralization at Willard Hill, and underlying Mesozoic units south of Coal Canyon. A similar thrust contact is postulated under Willard Hill. 

Cenozoic structure is represented by Basin and Range faulting which started during the Miocene and continues today. These are generally high angle normal faults along the range front, with parallel faults within the range and pediment. In the Wilco region, these have a NW, N-S and NE strike. Some older reverse faults associated with the onset of Basin and Range faulting strike E-W. Interpretation of air photo lineal features identified five structural trends (N-S, E-W, N450W, N450E, N700W) in the Wilco Project area. A major NW structure is inferred in Coal Canyon, which is located in the southern portion of the Wilco Project.

2008 Drill Program:
 

2008 Drill Program

Drill Results Summary

2007 Drill Program:

• Willard Mine Area: Drillhole Location / Target Map
• Colado Resource Area: Drill Hole location/ Target Map
• Wilco 2007 Drill Program Assay Results RVC Holes WR-01-48
• Wilco 2007 Drill Program Assay Results Core Holes WRC-001-004
• Wilco Section_567700E (Willard Area)
• Wilco Section_569100E (Willard Area)

3D Wilco Property Map

Click to view

Grade sections and Measured, indicated & inferred sections for Wilco on the Section and Colado resources:

Colado Resource Grade Sections with Pit		Colado Resource MII Sections with Pit
Section Line Resource Grade Sections with Pit		Section Line Resource MII Sections with Pit

Maps & Diagrams:

Wilco Drill Hole Location		Wilco Colado Geology
Wilco Location		Wilco Land
Wilco Willard Grade X Thickness		Wilco Willard Geology
Wilco Colado Section 563550E		Wilco Willard Section 569000E
Wilco Willard Section 569800E