Under Silverado's ownership since 1982, 23,153 ounces of placer gold were recovered from channel and bench deposits in the Nolan Valley through 2006. The largest nugget recovered to date weighed 41.35 ounces and was valued at US$16,000 by weight. It sold for US$50,000. Most nuggets recovered at Nolan Valley are suitable for jewellery.

Placer deposits at Nolan Creek can be found in frozen gravel beds (ancient channel deposits) some of which can be mined year round. Test mining can be carried out by underground methods during the coldest winter months, and by surface methods most of the year. In the summer months when the gravel has thawed, snow melt water is available for gold recovery by hydraulic sluicing. The sluicing process uses only gravity and water within a closed circuit, ensuring that there is zero discharge to the environment. Lands disturbed by mining are fully reclaimed. The Company operates under 11 combined federal and state permits.

Nolan Creek Lode - Seeking The Source

While developing and test mining the Nolan Creek Placer Gold deposits, Silverado has collected information and conducted surveys directed to identifying the lode sources for the placer gold. These "lode" sources are the actual areas where gold forms within spaces in rocks and fissures, and forms zones of gold mineralization.

Some gold recovered from placer test mining operations is still attached to quartz and other lode deposit materials, some is crystalline in nature, and some shows evidence of formation next to the wallrock of a vein. Also, recent work has disclosed gold and antimony mineralized rock exposures. The discovery of lode gold (probable source of gold nuggets) is now a function of methodical work on the five mile long Solomon Shear Trend where mineralization occurs from place to place throughout the Trend. The Company is exploring for the lode source of the nugget gold and is locating and examining source material systems. The Workman's Bench, which adjoins Pringle Bench, is currently being developed as our prime target for gold and antimony resources.

Included in our work to pinpoint other similar bodies, is a project entailing compilation of airborne geophysical survey data published by the State of Alaska which is being interpreted in conjunction with on-going ground geological, geophysical, and geochemical surveys. The cumulative data indicates that a resistivity low trend (electromagnetically conductive zone) over five miles in total length is present uphill from the known placer deposits. This area has been called the "Solomon's Shear Trend" and exists within our 12 square mile Nolan Creek Property.

Geophysical features like Solomon's Shear Trend may be caused by faults, veins or shear zones, by conductive lithologies or by combinations of these features. Geochemical soil sampling has shown above average values of gold and its companion metals, arsenic and antimony, coincident with the "Solomon's Shear Trend" resistivity low. Throughout the length of this trend there are a number of lode vein occurrences containing gold, arsenic and antimony. Other geologic models have also been indicated.

This trend is the target of current lode exploration for the source of the gold and antimony material found on the Nolan Creek Property. While there is no guarantee that economically viable concentrations of gold mineralization will be associated with this trend, the size and intensity of the anomaly, plus the location on the left limit of the hillside of Nolan Creek, being the area above the tested placer deposits, make it a target for exploration for lode gold mineralization.

Continued drilling is being conducted on the Workmen's Bench portions of the Solomon's Shear Trend to determine whether the company can proceed with confidence to continue with additional test mining.