Rye Patch Gold Corp. (TSXV: RPM) - Properties

Location: 110 miles NE of Reno, Nevada
Area: 3,276 acres
Minerals: Gold, silver
Ownership: 100%
Status: Exploration

Located just 16 kilometers (10 miles) east of Rye Patch’s Wilco Project, the 100%-owned Lincoln Hill and adjacent Gold Ridge properties securely position Rye Patch along the Oreana gold trend and Rochester mining district of Western Nevada. The area has supported active exploration for nearly 150 years and underground mining in the early 1900s reportedly averaged 7.5 ounces of gold per ton. Newmont Mining and Coeur d’Alene Mines explored Lincoln Hill in 2001/2002, intersecting anomalous-to-ore grade values in drilling. Rye Patch’s evaluation of this work includes re-logging of Newmont drill holes, construction of drill whole cross-sections and analysis of previous surface and underground sampling programs. The Company’s analysis indicates that the project contains potential for a bulk-tonnage gold deposit similar to the Rochester Silver Mine and the Spring Valley discovery. The Rochester mining district has produced a total of 4.5 million ounces of gold and 130 million ounces of silver. Rye Patch Gold has recently announced NI 43-101 resource estimates of 569,760 gold and gold equivalent ounces for the Lincoln Hill Property.

Active History with High-Grade Mining
The Lincoln Hill and adjacent Gold Ridge properties securely position Rye Patch along the Humboldt gold trend and Rochester mining district of Western Nevada. The Lincoln Hill area has supported active exploration for nearly 150 years, and underground mining in the early 1900s reportedly averaged 7.5 ounces of gold per ton. Most of this work occurred along a 7,000-foot strike length where mine tailings and numerous dumps are found today. Significant visible gold is evident, as well.
Bulk Tonnage and High-Grade Underground Potential
Both Newmont Mining and Coeur d'Alene Mines investigated the Lincoln Hill property in 2001 and 2002, intersecting anomalous-to-ore grade values in drilling. Analysis of both companies' data by Rye Patch indicates the project contains potential for a bulk-tonnage gold/silver deposit similar to the nearby Rochester Silver Mine and Spring Valley discovery. The Rochester district has produced 4.5 million ounces of gold and 130 million ounces of silver.
The Gold Ridge property presents an opportunity to develop a substantial, bulk-minable gold deposit as well as a high-grade underground mining operation. Currently, geological mapping and geochemical sampling results are being compiled to better understand this gold-silver system and possible large diatreme-porphyry complex which has the potential to host a multi-million ounce gold-silver deposit.

Lincoln Hill Target Area

The Lincoln Hill target is a high-grade, gold-silver-quartz-pyrite-tourmaline-sericite stockwork system with exceptional potential. The system overprints a large, moderate-grade, disseminated replacement precious metal mineralizing system. Rock chip samples collected over an extensive area confirm high-grade gold values hosted in the quartz-tourmaline-pyrite-sericite stockwork alteration. Random surface grab samples collected from pervasively silicified outcrops, excluding the stockwork mineralization, returned anomalous values (100 ppb) to 0.134 ounces of gold per ton. Channel sampling conducted within the central adit underground workings by Coeur d'Alene and Newmont reportedly returned values averaging 0.045 ounces of gold per ton along a horizontal distance of 500 by 300 feet.

Detailed Project History
The earliest prospecting activity occurred in the Lincoln Hill area during the late 1860's. On August 30, 1912, three prospectors discovered rich, quartz-gold "picture rock" scattered throughout the surface along the flanks of Lincoln Hill. According to various reports, the Lincoln Hill mine produced $80,000 in gold and silver through 1917. Other recent production estimates include the existing stoped underground workings, which reportedly averaged 7.5 ounces of Au per ton.

Gold and silver have been intermittently mined from Lincoln Hill through the 1980's. Although specific precious metal production figures are unavailable, the existence of extensive underground workings suggests that a significant amount of gold and silver was produced. In addition, the property contains numerous surface prospects; however, only minimal systematic exploration/development work has been conducted at the Lincoln Hill mine site to date.

Location: 63 miles NE of Reno, Nevada
Area: 4 sq. miles
Minerals: Gold, silver
Ownership: 100%
Status: Exploration w/ NI 43-101 resource

Rye Patch’s 100%-owned Jessup project contains a combined resource of approximately 501,720 ounces of gold and gold equivalent. Of this, 401,800 gold and gold equivalent ounces are in the measured and indicated resource category and 99,920 ounces are inferred. Several targets at the Jessup project show potential for high grade gold and silver mineralization. A $300,000 exploration program is planned to drill targets identified during 2008 drilling that delineated higher grade gold and silver within breccias at the San Jacinto and North Jessup resource areas. At this time, no additional drilling is planned for the Jessup project in 2010.

Drilling Expands Existing Gold Zones
The Jessup property holds excellent potential for both bulk and underground mining. Based on a 2007 NI 43-101 resource calculation, the property's three primary mineral zones contain an estimated 142,000 ounces of gold in the indicated (122,000 ounces) and inferred (20,000 ounces) categories. Much of the ground remains untested, including several new zones. Drilling on the Jessup project shows mineralization is open in the San Jascinto, and North Jessup targets. Additional targets have also been identified. The 2008 drilling is expected to increase gold resources, and a resource update is planned for 2009 along with Phase 2 drilling.

Exploration History
Exploration activity at Jessup in the early 1900s focused on veins and breccias and may have resulted in production of about a thousand ounces of gold prior to 1940. At least seven mining companies or individuals have explored the property since the 1960s with no further production to date. In the late 1990s, Echo Bay Exploration Inc. conducted the most extensive program, including drilling of 123 RC holes and two core holes. In addition to drilling, extensive sampling and trenching has occurred on the property, as well as geologic mapping and geophysical surveying.

Pan-Nevada commenced exploration in 2006 and completed 53 holes for a total of 8,026 ft of mostly RC drilling. Including the Pan-Nevada drill holes, 290 drill holes and 36 surface trenches, for a total footage of 106,935 ft has been completed on the Jessup property.

Geology and mineralization

On the Jessup property, a series of Tertiary bimondal (andesite/rhyolite) volcanic and lacustrine sedimentary rocks overlies metamorphosed basalts and quartzo-feldspathic sandstones thought to be Triassic/Jurassic in age. Younger rhyolite flows, domes and dikes were emplaced along what appears to be a ring-fracture system of a caldera within the Jessup district. The Tertiary fine-grained lacustrine rocks and minor pyrite-bearing chert, are interbedded within a thicker package of rhyolitic lapilli tuff, and these units host most of the disseminated mineralization at Jessup. Normal and oblique-slip faults found in the district were active at least during a pre-rhyolite phase, a post-rhyolite phase and a post-mineralization phase.

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

The Company’s Wilco project is located 160 kilometers(100 miles) northeast of Reno, Nevada -- the largest city in northern Nevada -- along the main transportation artery of Interstate 80. The project contains two gold resource areas – Willard and Colado. The advanced-stage Wilco Project currently holds a gold and gold equivalent resource of 780,980 ounces measured and indicated plus 2,057,420 ounces inferred. The large increase in the inferred category is the result of step-out drilling westward along the Willard anticline, and the drilling completed toward the north into the North Basin target area. In-fill drilling will be required to convert the inferred gold volume into the measured and indicated categories. Rye Patch has completed more than 19,000 meters (62,320 ft) of reverse circulation drilling and 900 meters (3,000 ft) of core drilling at Wilco. Rye Patch has an agreement with Newmont Mining by which it can earn a 100% interest in the Wilco project from Newmont Mining by spending $3 million in exploration and development by December 2010. Newmont can also elect to regain up to a 70% interest by spending an additional $20 million in development work.

New Resources on Historically Rich Ground
The Wilco project's rich history dates back more than 100 year 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.

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.

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

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.

According to Rye Patch Gold’s most recent NI-43 101 resource estimate, the company has 1.18 million of gold and gold equivalent ounces in the measured and indicated resource category and 2.73 ounces in the inferred resource category, combining all three of its projects.