Callaghan Project (NV)

Location

The 420-hectare Callaghan Project is an early-stage gold exploration property located in north-central Nevada, approximately 25 kilometres northeast of the town of Austin and 240 kilometres west of Reno. Numerous gold deposits occur within an 80-kilometre radius of the property, including the Pipeline, Cove/McCoy, Gold Bar, Ruby Hill, Northumberland and Quito deposits.

Since acquiring the project in 2004, Sona Resources has conducted mapping and geochemical sampling and has permitted and bonded the project for a first-stage exploration drill program.

Overview

In April 2004, Sona entered into a lease/option agreement with Joe Kizis of Reno for the 10 core claims at Callaghan and subsequently located an additional 59 claims. These claims are all subject to a three percent net smelter return royalty, of which two percent can be purchased. Under the option agreement, Sona pays the annual Bureau of Land Management and county fees and makes annual advance royalty payments to Mr. Kizis.

History

The earliest known work on the property is an 18-metre-deep shaft at the Rast Mine. This work was done in the 1930s on cinnabar occurring in Lower Plate rocks. A minor placer gold occurrence 800 metres southeast of the Rast Mine was also prospected in the 1930s. From 1969 to 1998, a series of exploration programs was carried out on and around the property by junior and senior companies. These included Cache Creek Exploration Company, Hanna Mining, Dome Mines, Houston Oil and Minerals, Kerr McGee, FMC Gold Company Placer Dome and Kennecott. Work completed during this period includes trenching, shallow reverse circulation rotary (drilling, soil and bio-geochemistry, airborne magnetics and limited deep RCR outside the current property limits. A small, poorly defined gold resource has been indicated in the Cottonwood Spring area.

During 2005, Sona commissioned a soil sampling survey using mobile metal ion techniques over the area surrounding the Kizis target, to aid in further defining the target and, with earlier data, provide vectors toward additional drilling targets. The results supported prior data on the Kizis target and indicated an additional target several hundred metres to the north. This northern MMI target is underlain beneath thin cover by the same favourable Lower Plate rocks, including the Roberts Mountains formation.

The review of the extensive prior database and the 2005 MMI soil geochemistry program have provided clearly defined drilling targets with excellent discovery potential, both in a known target area and in one that has not been drilled. Several reverse circulation exploration holes are recommended to be drilled on the property, with most of the holes to focus on the Kizis target.