Midnight Juniper, Arizona
The Midnight Juniper porphyry copper project lies at the north end of the Clifton-Morenci mining district in Arizona, approximately one kilometer northwest of the Morenci open pit copper mine. EMX has a Regional Strategic Alliance agreement, through its wholly owned subsidiary Bronco Creek Exploration, Inc. (“BCE”), with South32 Limited (“South32”) covering Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, but excluding South32’s Hermosa project in southern Arizona. The Agreement provides funding for generative work and property acquisitions, as well as a framework to advance projects of interest. Under the terms of the Agreement, which has an initial term of two years, South32 will provide annual funding for generative work performed by EMX personnel to identify properties for exploration work (“Alliance Exploration Properties” or “AEPs”). EMX personnel will conduct exploration on AEPs with additional funding from South32 in order to identify drill stage projects as Designated Projects. Designated Projects will advance under separate option agreements providing for work commitments and cash payments to EMX during South32’s earn-in period, and upon earn-in, a 2% net smelter return (“NSR”) royalty interest and pre-production and milestone payments to EMX’s benefit. (see Company news release dated December 6, 2018). Midnight Juniper has been selected by South32 as an initial AEP.
The Midnight Juniper project geology consists of a dissected plateau of Tertiary age volcanic cover rocks overlying a series of Paleozoic sedimentary and Proterozoic metamorphic rocks that are exposed in an arcuate pattern at lower elevations along stream courses. Paleozoic carbonate rocks contain a number of manganese oxide-rich base metal occurrences in northeast oriented vein, replacement, and breccia bodies typical of the distal expression of porphyry copper systems. EMX’s reconnaissance mapping shows that these occurrences appear to vector towards a suspected porphyry source lying under Tertiary cover rocks in the center of the Midnight Juniper land position.
Note: The nearby mines and deposits in the region provide context for EMX’s Project, which occurs in a similar geologic setting, but this is not necessarily indicative that the project hosts similar mineralization.