Hardshell Skarn, Arizona

The Hardshell Skarn royalty property is located ~75  kilometers southeast of Tucson, Arizona within the Patagonia Mountains, and is part of the ‘Hermosa Project’. The Hermosa land package includes the Taylor zinc-lead-silver deposit which is actively being advanced towards production. EMX retains a 2% NSR royalty on the Hardshell Skarn property that is not capped, nor subject to buy-down, resulting from the sale of the property to Arizona Mining Inc. (see Company news release dated November 24, 2015). South32 acquired Arizona Mining in 2018.
 
The Hardshell Skarn royalty claim block lies between the Sunnyside porphyry copper system to the west, the Taylor Deposit and Central Deposit to the north and east, and the historic Trench mine to the north. EMX’s early stage royalty generation work targeted base and precious metals mineralization in skarn and replacement bodies within a series of Paleozoic limestones. These carbonate rocks, as well as skarn mineralization, were intersected by Asarco in deep historic drilling (depths from 1,256-1,491 m) adjacent to the Sunnyside porphyry center and to the northwest of the Hardshell Skarn claim block. From west to east, the target rocks step to shallower levels across the EMX royalty position by a series of north trending faults, and are less than 100 meters below the surface immediately east of EMX’s royalty property.

Taylor 2018 PEA M&I Resource Estimate of 101M Tons Grading 10.4% ZnEq. Inferred Resource of 44M Tons Grading 11.9% ZnEqA1.

 

The adjacent properties provide context for the Hardshell Skarn (Peake) Project, which occurs in a similar geologic setting. However, this is not necessarily indicative that the Project hosts similar mineralization.

A1 Arizona Mining (“AMC”) announced the results of a preliminary economic assessment (“PEA”) for the Hermosa Property Mineral Resource and Taylor Deposit on January 16, 2018. AMC was responsible for managing and preparing the Technical Report under the guidelines of National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) for reporting of Mineral Resources with inputs from Ms D. Nussipakynova AMC, Mr G. Methven AMC, Mr C. Kottmeier AMC, Mr Q. Jin, SGS North America Inc., Mr R. Michael Smith, Newfields Mining Design and Technical Services, Mr E. Christenson of WestLand Resources Inc., Mr D. Bartlett of Clear Creek Associates, Ms L. Bloom, Analytical Solutions Ltd., and Mr C. Kaye, Mine and Quarry Engineering Services Ltd.

Zinc equivalent was based on long-term prices of $1.10/lb zinc, $1.00/lb lead and $20/oz silver, respectively. ZnEq Formula: ZnEq=(((PB%/100)*0.95*2000*0.95)+((ZN%/100)*1*2000*0.92)+(AG_OPT*0.9*20))/((1*2000*0.92)/100)

Maps

Cross section of Hardshell Skarn target area. Click to Enlarge

Photos

View of the Hardshell Skarn/Peake project area Click to Enlarge