White Elephant is an epithermal gold-silver project located in northeastern Lake County, Oregon, within the Glass Buttes area—an isolated volcanic complex with a history of mercury production and hydrothermal alteration consistent with the uppermost levels of an epithermal system. This is analogous to the geologic setting of certain large epithermal gold-silver deposits in Nevada, including Arthur (16 Moz gold resource) and Hycroft (11 Moz gold, 360 Moz silver resource), both of which are overlain by ‘steam caps’ composed of gold-barren clay alteration with highly anomalous mercury.

The project area was the site of small-scale mercury production between the initial discovery of cinnabar in 1933 and 1970 as well as significant geothermal exploration in the 2010s. Cinnabar occurs primarily within fine‑grained silica bodies developed by opalization and silicification of flow‑banded glassy volcanic rocks. Mineralization is structurally controlled, concentrated along northwest‑trending faults and breccia zones that dip steeply and extend for hundreds of feet along strike. Recent geothermal exploration conducted by Ormat in partnership with the DOE incorporated LiDAR‑based structural mapping, airborne hyperspectral mineral mapping, gravity, aeromagnetic, and magnetotelluric surveys, followed by deep exploration drilling, and products from many of these efforts are available in a public report. In sum, they define a structurally focused geothermal system with deep‑seated, northwest‑striking faults acting as primary fluid conduits.

The system at White Elephant displays many defining characteristics of the low sulfidation epithermal environment, including silica flooding, steam‑heated clay alteration, structurally localized hydrothermal breccias, and documented mercury mineralization representing the uppermost levels of the system. At Glass Buttes, precious‑metal potential remains largely untested beneath and laterally offset from mercury‑bearing silica zones, particularly along northwest‑trending structures now well defined by modern geophysics. Nevada Legacy’s claim position captures these structurally prepared and hydrothermally altered zones, presenting a district‑scale opportunity to advance an epithermal gold–silver exploration thesis that is supported by prior exploration work.