12. INCOME TAXES (Details 2) - USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]
Deferred tax liabilities	$ 0	$ 0
Deferred tax assets:
Allowance for obsolete and slow-moving inventories	0	0
Impairment on property, plant and equipment	423,413	421,106
Exploration costs	1,804,502	1,794,667
Compensation costs of unexercised stock options	119,786	120,986
US federal net operating loss	11,617,000	11,575,000
Total deferred tax assets	13,964,701	13,911,759
Valuation allowance	(11,736,786)	(11,695,986)
Net deferred tax asset	$ 2,227,915	$ 2,215,773

Amount before allocation of valuation allowances of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible temporary differences and carryforwards.

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Amount, after allocation of valuation allowances and deferred tax liability, of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible differences and carryforwards, without jurisdictional netting.

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Amount before allocation of valuation allowances of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible domestic operating loss carryforwards. Excludes state and local operating loss carryforwards.

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Amount, before allocation of valuation allowance, of deferred tax asset attributable to deductible temporary differences from reserves and accruals, classified as other.

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