The Carlin Gold-Vanadium Property is located on the western flank of the Piñon Range, a block faulted horst of the Basin and Range tectonic province. The local lithologies are predominantly Paleozoic age (Permian to Mississippian), western assemblage, siliceous sedimentary rocks, shale, siltstone, chert, limestone and conglomerate, transported above the Roberts Mountain Thrust. The vanadium mineralization is stratigraphically controlled and appears to follow the strike and dip of the host lithology, near the contact between an overlying grey-brown siltstone and an underlying brown to black shale unit of the Devonian-age Woodruff Formation. The mineralized zones form stratigraphic subunits or beds of the Woodruff Formation shale hosting elevated concentrations of vanadium in the form of vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅).

Drilling to date has defined multiple zones of vanadium enriched mineralization (>0.2% V₂O₅) both in the overlying grey-brown siltstone and brown-black shale unit. The most persistence, thick and highest-grade vanadium unit lies in the brown-black shale unit and averages approximately 115 ft (35 meters (m)) thick, striking north-south over 6,000 ft (1,800 m) in length and 2,000 ft (600 m) wide in the east-west direction. Although most of the deposit is flat to very shallow dipping, it appears to be gently folded anticlinally, with dips locally east and west up to 30^o. The mineralization is locally exposed at surface but mostly at a shallow depth to 200 ft (60 m) from surface. Parts of the sequence and deposit are oxidized and exhibit red-purple color in higher vanadium grades.