On July 16, 2019, Emergent announced it had signed a Purchase Agreement with Searchlight Resources Inc. (TSXV: SCLT)("Searchlight") to acquire the New York Canyon Property, NV ("NY Canyon" or the "Property").  At that time, the Property consisted of 60 unpatented claims and 21 patented claims.  On November 15, 2019, Emergent announced it had expanded the Property by staking an additional 92 unpatented claims.  On March 30, 2020, Emergent announced it had completed the acquisition of the Searchlight claims.

 

NY Canyon is made up of two non-contiguous blocks of claims - the North Block and the South Block.  The South Block hosts copper skarn and porphyry mineralization in three main target areas - Longshot Ridge, Copper Queen, and Champion.  The North Block of claims hosts copper skarn, porphyry, and gold mineralization and is adjacent to and abutting the past-producing Santa Fe Mine being advanced toward production by Lahontan Gold Corporation (TSXV:LG)("Lahontan").  Target areas include Emma (copper), York (the potential extension of the York Pit from the adjacent Santa Fe Property (gold)), and the Yorkie target (gold).  

 

Deposits were discovered and mine on the property going back to 1875.  The Property has been explored since the 1960's by Conoco, Kookaburra Resources Ltd., and various joint ventures including Coca Mines and Phelps Dodge.  Aberdene Mines Ltd (subsequently Canyon Copper Corporation and then Searchlight Resources Inc.) acquired the property around 2004.  Total drilling on the Property prior to Emergent's ownership is 139,056 ft in 274 holes.

​

Several historic resource estimates were done on the Property.  Conoco reported a 142 million tons (129 million tonnes) inferred resource grading 0.35% copper, 0.015% molybdenum, 0.1% Zn, 4 ppm silver, and 0.1 ppm gold for the Copper Queen deposit in the internal report dated May 10, 1979. In another internal report completed on September 20, 1979, Conoco reported “possible reserves from drill-hole data and geologic interpretation on cross sections” of 13.2 million tons (11.0 million tonnes) grading 0.55% copper for the Longshot Ridge prospect.   These are historical reserve and resource estimates prepared prior to the implementation of NI 43-101 and use terminology not compliant with current reporting standards.  A qualified person has not audited or verified these historical estimates nor made any attempt to re-classify the estimates according to current NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure or the CIM standards. 

​

Work by Searchlight focused on the Longshot Ridge area where they drilled 27,605 feet of drilling in 73 holes.    In a 2010 NI 43-101 Technical Report, Searchlight defined a historic indicated resource of 16.3 million tons (14.8 million tonnes) of 0.43% copper and a historic inferred resource of 2.9 million tons (2.6 million tonnes) of 0.31% copper in the Longshot Ridge copper oxide skarn area.  A cut-off grade of 0.20% copper was used.  This mineral resource estimate is considered historical as defined by NI 43-101 and a qualified person has not audited or verified this resource as a current mineral resource. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. The Company is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves.

​

On February 11, 2020, Emergent signed an Earn-in with Option to Joint Venture Agreement with Kennecott Exploration Company ("Kennecott"), a subsidiary of Rio Tinto plc (RIO:LSE).  Kennecott agreed to option NY Canyon Property with three incremental options to acquire up to 75% of the Property by conducting up to US$22.5 million in exploration expenditures over a period of up to 11 years.

​

Between 2020 and 2023, Kennecott completed approximately US$6.7 million in exploration expenditures including:

​

• Geologic mapping,

• Re-assaying of selected intervals of 10 historic core holes,

• Surface rock chip sampling,

• UAV magnetic geophysics and DEM survey,

• Passive seismic survey,

• Carbon-oxygen isotope analysis, and

• 19,059 ft of diamond core drilling.

​

On June 30, 2023, Emergent announced that Kennecott had elected to terminate the Option to Earn-in Agreement, effective June 29, 2023.  Kennecott transferred all its exploration data to Emergent as well as 265 mineral claims it had staked, bringing the property size to 417 unpatented claims and 21 patented claims.

​

On May 1, 2024, Emergent announced that it had signed an Option Agreement for Purchase and Sale of the New York Canyon Property with Ivanhoe Electric Inc. (NYSE:IE)("IE").   IE can acquire the Property by making cash and share payments of US$2.0 million in cash and/or shares (US$300,000 paid to date) on or before August 1, 2025 (see March 1, 2024 press release for details).

​

IE is conducting exploration on the Property.  On September 1, 2024, due to increased BLM annual fees for maintaining unpatented claims, IE and Emergent reduced the property size at NY Canyon to 347 unpatented claims and 21 patented claims, totaling about 7,300 acres in size.  The potential exists for the discovery of additional skarn and copper porphyry mineralization on the North and South Blocks of the Property, as well as gold mineralization on the North Block.