Overview

The Orex Iligan Project (“Orex”) is a 6,163-hectare porphyry copper-gold prospect located in Iligan City, north north-west of the Island of Mindanao, Philippines under one Exploration Permit Application. The Mines and Geosciences Bureau has issued an area clearance for the exploration permit application. As of this writing the application is with the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) office where they have completed an area investigation to confirm the presence of indigenous people (IP). The NCIP office has approved the initiation of consultation with the IP’s.

Previous exploration companies conducted minor activities on the property. Among the companies who worked area are Frontino Incorporated from 1962 to 1963, and Mitsui Corporation of Japan who sunk 4 diamond drill holes in 1969. Unfortunately only a few data sets exist as testament to their works. The location is in an area with proven occurrence of copper-lead-zinc with associated gold mineralization. The mineralization suggests high potential for porphyry style copper at depth possibly related to the 75-sq. km. quartz diorite stock on the north-east and to the structures that mimic the regional north-east structural pattern.

Silt sediment samples from initial regional stream sediments sampling returned elevated copper value of 100 to 150 ppm. Rock samples, on the other hand, returned as high as 15.98 % Cu from veinlets and 1.37% Cu from random rock chips. Meanwhile, groups working on the north-east side of the property delineated a series of discontinuous quartz-diorite and quartz-veined andesite intrusives which, when projected to the south-west, may extend in the property. This was confirmed by ground indications. Likewise, gold and copper mining activities along this zone and near the tenement could only bolster the
highly likelihood of mineralization in the area of interest.

The property is located in the northern part of Mindanao Island in southern Philippines. Minimal exploration activities have been done in the area and documentation of these works has been very scanty. No known systematic and extensive exploration has been undertaken yet to determine the copper-gold potential of the area. Currently, there are numerous small scale mining activities in and near the area extracting high grade copper ore and gold. Based on the initial works conducted these pockets of mining activities are confined along a 15-kilometer series of exposed structurally controlled andesite/diorite
intrusives. The area is at the south-west tail of this lineament which extends north-eastward outside the property. Recent geological data indicate that metal mineralization is related to the intrusives and these materials may have also induced more extensive copper mineralization at depth. This project is a follow-up of what has been done and aims to delineate, in more precise terms, the lateral and vertical extension of copper mineralization.

The Tenement is located approximately 20 kilometres northeast of Iligan City and 80 kilometres southwest of Cagayan de Oro City. The main access to the area is via the Cagayan-Iligan Highway. It is readily accessible by any type of motor vehicle from either Cagayan de Oro or Iligan, passing through the Barangay roads from the highway at Sitio Bangkero. Sardab, where one of the outcrops is located, can be reached using a 12-kilometer all-weather dirt road from the highway.

Topography is characterized by moderate to rugged terrain with elevations varying from 100 to 400 meters above sea level (“masl”). The highest peak is about 495 masl, located at the central part of the study area. The headwaters of Sardab, Lacob, Ladi, Tablon and Saburan Creeks and their tributaries drain the area. The creeks of Sardab and Saburan flow intermittently in a northerly direction to empty towards Mandulog River. Lacob, Ladi and Tablon creeks, on the other hand, flow southerly to join Digkilaan River. Mandulog and Digkilaan merge at the south-west where they roll down farther west to unload ultimately to Iligan Bay.

The Tenement lies within a window of pre-Tertiary to Tertiary rocks that remained uncovered by abundant Pliocene-Recent volcanic and pyroclastic products of huge volcanic centers (e.g., Mt. Kalatungan, Mt. Kitanglad) in Central Mindanao.

Mindanao, the second largest Philippine island and located south, is surrounded by three subduction zones: the Philippine Trench along where the Philippine basin is being subducted in the east, the Cotobato trench to the south, and the Sulu-Negros Trench to the west where the Celebes and Sulu seas are respectively being consumed. The copious volcanism in central Mindanao is thought to be the magmatic response to a collision between two arcs (e.g., Pubellier et al., 1991; Sajona et al., 1997) where it is still active to the south.

Basement rocks in Misamis Oriental, north to northeast of the property, consist of schists and slivers of thrusted Pre-Tertiary ultramafic rocks. The schist is faulted and intensely folded. It is unconformably overlain by the Eocene to Oligocene Himaylan Formation, composed of metasdeimentary and metavolcanic units. The Himaylan Formation is, in turm, unconformably overlain by basalt flows and intercalated sedimentary sequences of the Lower to Middle Miocene To-od Formation. Diorite stocks, presumably of Late Miocene age, intrude the latter, recrystallizing some of the Miocene limestone bodies it affected.

In the west side of Iponan River, a portion of the Himaylan Formation is intruded by porphyritic andesite and overlain by Upper Miocene sedimentary rocks. Extensive deposits of Pliocene to Pleistocene limestone cover a wide area on the western coastline and parts of the hinterlands. Areas east of Iponan River are mostly covered by the Iponan Clastics, abundant Pliocene-Recent volcanics and the Pleistocene-Recent Cagayan Terrace Gravel.

The oldest rock suite in the area is the Pre-tertiary essentially composed of serpentinized utramafics and schistose rocks which appears to have been dragged along with the emplacement of the former. They are in thrust contact with andesite/diorite porphyry body in the west. Farther west, the andesite is capped by the Opol formation essentially consist of well bedded and slightly folded conglomerate, sandstone, agglomerate, tuffaceous sandstone and tuff. This formation also covers the northern and southern portion of the area. The northern portion of the tenement is fringed by a sequence of sedimentary rocks,
basalt breccias and basal flows collectively called the Tood Formation of Lower Miocene age. The eastern portion is underlain by the Pliocene Iponan Calstics essentially composed of poorly sorted conglomerate, sandstone and shale.

The ultramafics are highly fractured and occur as elongate bodies trending north-east. They are composed of predominantly of peridotite, commonly harzaburgite, and subordinate dunite and pryroxenite. Schists are generally are sheared, brecciated and, in many places, mineralized with pyrite-galena-sphalerite-covellite-chalcopyrite with associated gold and silver.

Peridotite is dark green coarse-grained with abundant pyroxene crystals. It is the most abundant rock unit in the formation widely exposed within the mapped ultramafic complex. Some specimens show olivine and pyroxene crystals altered to serpentine. Dunite is mostly confined at the highly fractured southern portion of the explored area. It is very fine-grained, dark green to black in specimen color and usually contains abundant chromite disseminations. In most outcrops, it is highly serpentinized and exhibits advanced weathering. Most exposures show the unit in contact with the peridotite along local fractures.

The andesite/diorite porphyry hosts the Fe and Cu sulfide mineralization. It is dominantly exposed in the headwaters of Saburan, Ladi and Sardab Creeks and the mid-portions of Lacob and Tablon Creeks. Rock specimen is fined-grained and silicified. Most outcrops contain pyrite disseminations and quartz veinlets.

Copper mineralization is believed to have been introduced and influenced by the north-east trending faults which are highly likely the pipeline for silicification and argilization and conduits for copper-lead-zinc mineralization. The structures are consistent with the regional structural pattern which was recognized north-east of the area where there are extant small-scale copper-gold mining operations. Likewise, series of dioritic and andesitic intrusives are disposed along the same trend and are believed to have provided the mineralizing solutions.