Northern Vertex Mining Corp. has filed paperwork to begin measuring the economic viability of expanding its gold and silver mine exploration project in northwestern Arizona.

Drilling at the Moss mine site, about 20 minutes from Bullhead City, began in 2013, but no mining has begun yet as the project site is still in exploratory stages.

The company now is looking for the Bureau of Land Management to approve a widening of its claims to the area to include adjacent federal public land. Northern Vertex has no patent claims on the adjacent land currently.

If patent claims are granted, exploratory processes include surface drilling and general operations. Northern Vertex says there is no guarantee of any mineral reserves at the site.