Multiple Exploration Targets
Adjacent to the Ocampo District
Geology and property map of Moris Exploration Project area (click to enlarge)
District Exploration
Beginning in early 2006, EXMIN acquired a significant percentage of the mining concessions in the Moris district and identified three areas with large scale exploration targets, at El Pilar-Mesa de las Tunas, Tecolote, and Balleza (see EXMIN News Release of February 22, 2006). Each of these areas was the site of past mining activity, although little modern exploration was completed prior to EXMIN’s work. The areas are road accessible, and the drill programs described below are believed to be the first at each target.
EXMIN joint ventured the 71,000 hectare project to a subsidiary of Hochschild Mining plc (Hochschild) in mid 2006 (see EXMIN News Release of July 18, 2006). Drilling by the joint venture in 2007 tested portions of each of these targets, and intersected high grade gold and silver in veins as well as wider zones of lower grade mineralization (see EXMIN News Releases of July 11, 2007 and March 13, 2008). Hochschild returned 100% of the project to EXMIN in April, 2008, after spending about US$ 1.5 million (see EXMIN News Release of April 16, 2008).
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Click to enlarge image
El Pilar Target
At the El Pilar-Mesa de Las Tunas area a series of narrow but high grade gold-silver veins has been mined at a small scale in the past. Several important veins with past small scale production are known, including Pedregosa, Juana Ines, La Blanca, and El Templar (see table of assays below). Also, at Ampliacion Finlandia, a breccia body with fragments of wall rock and interstitial quartz vein fill yielded high silver values; 19 samples averaged 2.0 metres in width with 0.92 g/t gold and 206 g/t silver with values as high as 7.98 g/t gold and 968 g/t silver, both over 2 metre sample widths (see EXMIN News Releases of July 18, 2006, and July 11, 2007 for sample data). Work by Hochschild has yielded similar results (see table below).
Drilling to date has been on the western side of the area near El Pilar. The main targets have been the breccia body at Ampliacion Finlandia as well as the La Blanca/Todos Santos vein system. Six holes were drilled totalling 1739.85 metres; several veins with interesting precious metal grades were intersected, including the two intercepts mentioned previously, as well as wider zones of lower grade silver mineralization, including 11 metres of 250 g/t silver and 1.4 g/t gold (see EXMIN News Release of March 13, 2008).
TecoloteTarget
The eastern part of the Tecolote target area is located approximately 2 kilometres from the producing Moris Mine, owned by EXMIN 30% and Hochschild 70%. The target consists of a large structural zone that hosts a vein system that has been traced for over 800 metres along strike and is exposed over a vertical extent of more than 700 metres. The structural zone is similar to that which hosts the Santa Maria vein now in production at the Moris Mine. Tecolote was not eroded like the Santa Maria vein and has the potential to host several times more mineralized tonnage. Relatively narrow veins occur within a large area of high-level silicification, a feature commonly observed above productive low sulfidation epithermal deposits.
Drilling at Tecolote returned wide intervals with anomalous gold values. Four holes were drilled at this target for a total of 708.65 metres. Mineralized intervals included 40.75 metres with 0.6 g/t gold, and 16.65 metres of 0.89 g/t gold, as well as narrower higher grade vein intercepts within the wider zones, including 0.6 metres of 3.95 g/t gold and 16.7 g/t silver (see EXMIN News Release of July 11, 2007). The drilling to date has only tested mineralization at a very high structural level in the vein system.
Balleza Target
The Balleza target consists of a silicified rhyolite dike that hosts quartz-matrix breccias and local discrete high grade quartz veins. The dike has been explored over mineralized widths of 10 to 25 metres and is exposed over a vertical elevation of more than 100 metres and at least 500 metres along strike, and is open in both directions. Of fifty-seven rock chip samples previously taken by EXMIN, more than half returned gold values of greater than 0.5 g/t Au and ranged up to 6.18 g/t Au and 461 g/t Ag (see table below for average sample assays). One sample from a mine dump assayed 26.6 g/t Au. Rock chip sampling by Hochschild yielded similar results, with most samples assaying more than 0.3 g/t in the silicified and brecciated dike (see table below and EXMIN News Release of July 11, 2007). Local high grade veins assayed as much as 17.5 g/t gold over a width of one metre.
One hole was drilled to test the Balleza target. A 50 metre mineralized interval was intersected along strike from the large surface anomaly mentioned above. Only thirty three samples covering 33.1 metres within this 50 metre long interval were assayed, with several gaps left unsampled. The assayed samples averaged 0.67 g/t gold, and 19 of the 33 samples assayed more than 0.5 g/t gold, and ranged as high as 3.1 g/t gold (see EXMIN News Release of March 13, 2008 for sample data). The entire visibly mineralized interval was not sampled and EXMIN plans to procure and send the non-assayed intervals to the laboratory for analysis.
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