Medinah Minerals (MDMN)

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For more information on Medinah Minerals for shareholders e-mail: mdmnshareholder@gmail.com
 

Medinah Minerals, Inc., headquartered corporately in Las Vegas, Nevada, is a junior mining exploration company with mining properties located within the continent of South America, just north of Santiago, Chile. The company's assets consist primarily in high-grade deposits of gold, silver, copper and molybdenum (moly). Medinah Minerals, Inc. (USA) owns 50% of Medinah Minerals (Chile) S.A. By virtue of this ownership, Medinah Minerals, Inc. (MDMN) shares in half of any and all projects and properties owned and operated by Medinah Minerals (Chile) S.A. On February 7, 2012, Medinah signed a Purchase Agreement to sell 85% of their Alto de Lipangue claims for a minimum of $180 million to a soon-to-be disclosed "Purchase Agreement Consortium". Medinah Minerals (Chile) S.A. will retain a 15% free carried interest while the Purchase Partner explores and develops the Alto de Lipangue properties.

Specifically, Medinah's chief holdings consist of the Alto de Lipangue and Las dos Marias claims. Medinah Minerals, Inc. claims are registered (Medinah Mining, Chile) and recognized under the Chilean Mensura mining laws. The contiguous properties of the Alto de Lipangue plateau and Las Dos Marias claims cover an area of approximately 10,000 hectares.

•  Stock Symbol:  MDMN
•  Website:  http://www.medinah-minerals.com
•  Company Q&A:  http://www.medinah-minerals.com/Q_A_Website.html
•  Company Unaudited Financials:  http://www.medinah-minerals.com/financials.html
•  Shareholder Website for MDMN news and developments: http://medinah-minerals-news.com/mdmn/

About the President/CEO of Medinah Minerals: Sr. Juan Jose (JJ) Quijano, an attorney, as well as his father were instrumental in writing/developing mining legislation for the country of Chile and he also happens to control the most mining claims of any individual in Chile. He practices before the Chilean Supreme Court and other South American countries on mining matters and has been partnered with both Cerro and Medinah for many years. His knowledge and influence within the Chilean mining community and government are key assets and an integral part of Cerro and Medinah's corporate plans. His complete biography can be found here: http://www.medinah-minerals.com/juan-jose-quijano.html.

As shown in this teaser clip at the "Gold Rush" season finale aired on The Discovery Channel on 2/22/2013, JJ and the 20% Medinah-owned JOTA property (see below) will be appearing in the documentary when it airs later in March of 2013.

 

  Share Structure Information                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

  Alto De Lipangue Joint Venture Status and Updates                                                                                                                                                                                

ALTO DE LIPANGUE

Medinah's Alto de Lipangue claims consist of a gold, copper, silver and molybdenum complex of approximately 10,000 hectares located along the Andes coastal mountain range approximately 35 kilometers NW of Santiago, Chile in the Metropolitan Region of Chile. Medinah's Lipangue claims are believed to encompass a large copper/gold porphyry as first confirmed by Gordon House, former (dec.) P. Geo of Medinah, as suggested by independent geological analysis provided by A.C.A. Howe on the property and the Satellite Imagery Report by Clemente Sepulveda Perez (contracted by Vale and BHP Billiton). It is of significant note that Perez concluded in his report that "2 PORPHYRIES ARE PRESENT AND A VARIETY OF MINERALIZATION TYPES WERE IDENTIFIED. AT LEAST "HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF TONS OF RESOURCES" ARE PRESENT IN THE UPPER PARTS OF THE PORPHYRIES AND SKARNS. HE CITES THAT THIS IS WITHOUT A DOUBT A "WORLD CLASS" DEPOSIT."

For the most comprehensive compilation of due diligence regarding Alto de Lipangue, refer to Dr. Jim DeCosta's Valuation Considerations for the Lipangue Deposit.

WHY LIPANGUE IS A DESIRABLE DEPOSIT TO JOINT VENTURE:

1)  Approximately a 140 square Km (according to C. Sepulveda Perez) area of landholdings.

2)  18 holes drilled to date identifying an approximately $[2] billion "measured resource" at today's prices (July 2011).  This "Gordon" breccia pipe is open in all directions, measures 80-meters in "True width" and dips to the south and east.

3)  A second breccia/skarn discovered at the northern aspect of the Lobo property of Cerro Dorado, Inc. "Containing upwards of 3% copper, plus gold, plus moly".  The Northern Lobo breccia/skarn outcrops over 1,000-meters in length and 80-meters in width over a 400-meter elevation range from 1,300 to 1,700 meters.  This was described by its discovering geologist at the recent annual meeting as "A major mineralized breccia pipe".

4)  A "Stockworks" discovery has been identified by one of the visiting major mining firms southwest of the "Gordon" breccia pipe.  No surface or depth dimensions are available yet to my knowledge.

5)  A 250-meter by 250-meter "Bowl-like depression" (Suspected breccia) near the airstrip bordering the southern Alto and Lobo (Cerro Dorado) properties.  This depression coincides with very favorable geochemical sampling as well as Induced Polarization findings of "High resistivity" (heavy silicification from the presence of quartz which often is associated with gold) and "highly polarized" indicating the presence of sulphides often found bonded to various metals.  Surface sampling revealed 6-10 gm/tonne gold plus moly.

6)  Three past-producing molybdenum mines on site near the 1,000 meter elevation level (the plateau is at 2,000 meters).  This finding is very consistent with the thesis of a copper-moly porphyry as molybdenum typically concentrates at lower elevations near the outer aspects of the "Porphyry stock" (Lowell-Guilbert model).  At the most recent Annual General Meeting of Medinah Minerals, Inc. Sr. Quijano noted that the molybdenum assay results in this area were approximately 10 times that of the average molybdenum mine.  Medinah's head geologist brought samples of very high concentration moly containing rocks found near the Carrizo Mine adit.  Native molybdenite looks an awful lot like graphite and has a similar "slippery" texture.

7)  Many vein systems one of which, the Fortuna Vein (Cerro Dorado), averaged gold production values of 63.4 gm/tonne from 1940-1970.  ACA Howe report suggests that these veins have barely been touched and remain mostly unexplored.  Other veins include the Veta Rica, the Guarani, the Caren and the Veta Espanola.

8)  Mineralized 80-meter wide shear zone found at Las Dos Marias.  This has been traced at surface for over 700 meters before it dipped below the volcanic andesite layer.  The 71-meter level revealed a 1-meter intersection measured by ACA Howe as containing 454 gm/tonne gold.

9)  Copper skarn/manto discovery at Las Dos Marias on the eastern flank of the "Quebrada Durazno" ("Peach gulch").  The junction between the low sulphidation gold-copper porphyry and this skarn has been identified.

10)  40 Km of roads recently built and/or refurbished.  "Road cuts" into the side of the mountain throughout the property reveal mineralization nearly ubiquitous in nature.  This is especially true at the "North" road (Cerro Dorado) with its 24 "switchbacks" cut into the mountain side revealing copious amounts of mineralization.

11)  Many, many kilometers of adits (horizontal tunnels), chimneys, trenches, shafts, etc. completed over the last 30 years.

12)  Tailings piles from artisanal workings average 5.3gm/tonne gold.

13)  Close proximity to the Ventanas (Codelco) and Chagres (Anglo American) smelters.

14)  Close proximity to the seaport of Valparaiso.

15)  Close proximity to a major electrical grid west of Lampa.

16)  Close proximity to Santiago (approximately 37 Km)

17)  Relatively low elevation of 500 to 2,000 meters with water issues much less severe than the Andean or Atacama Desert porphyry mines at higher elevations where ACA Howe reports the infrastructure to be "basically nonexistent".  Water issues, electricity issues and natural gas issues at the higher elevations are a huge problem that might curtail copper production and buoy prices and the attractability of discoveries at lower elevations.

18)  Roughly estimated average of $100/ tonne "Rock" containing copper, moly, gold and silver.

19)  Extremely roughly estimated ore body size of 800 million tonnes (Via crude extrapolation of an average-sized copper-moly porphyry and an average-sized copper-gold porphyry). 

20)  Host country of Chile considered by many as the safest and most mining-friendly country in South America if not the world.

21)  Over a dozen major mining firms have shown interest by making repeated site visits and signing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

22)  Porphyry discoveries are considered very homogenous and not likely to present any shocking disappointments as to size and/or grade.  Their grades are not supposed to be spectacular.  They're known for being huge and of moderate to low grade.  They are the target of choice for most mining companies due to their long mine lives.

23)  Codelco (the Chilean government's mining arm and largest producer of copper in the world) recently staked the properties contiguous to the south where they recently embarked on an airborne geophysical study.

PICTURES OF PROPERTY

 

 

http://www.medinah-minerals.com/photo_gallery.html
http://www.medinah-minerals.com/images/gallery/tunnel-breccia.jpg
http://www.medinah-minerals.com/images/example_coarse_gold_recovered.jpg
http://www.medinah-minerals.com/images/gallery/01-Los-dos-Marias-adit.jpg
http://www.medinah-minerals.com/images/gallery/copper.adit.2008.jpg
http://www.medinah-minerals.com/images/gallery/copper.adit.inside.2008.jpg

Video Tour of the Property is available here:   http://www.youtube.com/user/Medinahshareholders

Map of the property can be found here:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=lipangue,+chile&sll=-33.287705,-70.894775&sspn=0.040968,0.065918&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=12&lci=lmc:panoramio,lmc:youtube,lmc:wikipedia_en

LAS DOS MARIAS

         LDM Description

Medinah Minerals Chile (S.A.) has historically been the 100% owner of the Las Dos Marias claims, 1-30 totaling 130 hectares on the northwest slope of the Alto de Lipangue plateau. Las Dos Marias is a high grade gold vein complex and it had been proposed to sink a shaft to intercept the high grade gold mineralization as a quick and economical way to monetize the deposit. The following is Paul Jones' original proposal for sinking the shaft into LDM.

For historical purposes, according to the May 4, 2010 Q&A, late in 2009, and early 2010, the intention of company management was to feature the Las dos Marias property as an independent production entity. Various JVA potential partners had requested that the Las dos Marias project not be a "stand alone" issue, but be included as an added deal point matter in the Alto de Lipangue negotiations. Ultimately in late 2011, Medinah Minerals entered a JV with a Funding Agreement entity (Compania Mineras LDM Chile) to sink a shaft and mine LDM on their own. Work on LDM began in early 2012. Upon unexpectedly striking a high grade gold vein in April 2012 when tunnel excavation just began, Medinah and CMLDM restructured the ownership of LDM on May 3, 2012 so that essentially CMLDM took control of all of the Los Amigos 1 claim which encompasses the vein structure while Medinah retained a 30% NSR from Los Amigos and regained 100% ownership in the 9 other LDM claims surrounding the vein.

Recent LDM Developments

On August 17, the company announced that the discoveries made during the tunneling operations at LDM have necessitated the development of a "much larger scale" mining operation.  Company Management, Mining Engineers, and Geologists are developing new mining plans that include the extraction of significant ore tonnages apart, and in addition to encountered veins at DDH-1, and anticipated at the soon to be reached DDH-2 site. Crosscuts in the tunnel have yielded gold averages of 8+ g/t on the east crosscut and 5+ g/t on the west crosscut.  Samples from a newly discovered secondary tunnel showed an astounding 6.5% copper per tonne across the face with other values at 1.51%. And a newly discovered 2-meter wide gold vein was discovered at 51 meters

Random sampling of the skarn has been ongoing during the tunneling process.  Samples of skarn material returned grades ranging from 9.4 grams per tonne gold to 2.3 grams per tonne gold.  Sampling of the skarn material in the open pit returned assays similar to those from inside the tunnel.      

Las Dos Marias Tunnel Project 1-hour Video (December 2012)

LDM Exploration History

The following is a bit of history on Las Dos Marias provided by Dr. Jim Decosta from TheMiningPlay forum:

"A LITTLE HISTORY OF THE LDM IN ORDER TO KEEP THE RECENT LDM VEIN DISCOVERY IN CONTEXT

The IP/IR study done at LDM involved a 1,000 meter by 1,000 meter grid that showed "hot spots" on all 6 of the 6 horizontal lines.  A "hot spot" would equate to areas with high polarizability overlapping with resistivity measurements indicating the presence of silicification and/or sulphides.  Gold has a tendency to hang out in areas of high silicification (quartz bearing) and high sulphide levels (typically pyrite and arsenopyrite).

Medinah drilled 2 holes to test 2 hot spots.  Hole DM 99-01 had very good results and DM 99-02 had spectacular results at the 68 meter depth level.  The plan became to sink a vertical shaft at 99-02 to the 70 or so meter level and trace out the mineralization found in the drill core at that location.  Due to the new safety rules in Chile subsequent to the 33 miners being trapped a horizontal safety tunnel is now mandated for vertical shafts.

The horizontal tunnel was designed to intersect the vertical shaft at the 70 or so meter level.  The horizontal tunnel was to have a slight decline to it in order to drain out any water encountered.  Since the property slopes downwards from south to north the horizontal tunnel was planned to commence north of the "glory hole" (99-02) at the proper elevation level to accommodate for the decline.  With a little luck, this tunnel would intercept the intended vein on the way in to the center of the mountain and provide some production opportunities.

While preparing the entry way for the tunnel the track hoe intercepted a gold/copper vein right near the surface.  After testing the vein contents and no doubt comparing the ore to that in the drill cores attained at the 68 meter level of 99-02 the geologists and engineers decided to trace the vein to depth and into the mountain.  As was announced recently the engineers and geologist have now come to the conclusion that the vein encountered at surface while preparing for the tunnel commencement was indeed the targeted vein intersected at 99-02 i.e. the "glory hole".

Instead of commencing mining several months in the future if the high grade area was successfully found in the vertical shaft mining has commenced already.  It is not 100% clear if the need for a rather expensive vertical shaft has been circumvented or not as its main purpose was to act as the locator for the high grade zone.

The high grade vein is basically a single "shear" within a "shear zone" usually containing many parallel "shears".  Once filled with metal-laden hydrothermal fluids that have cooled and deposited their contents the mineralized shear is referred to as a "vein".  This 1 particular "shear/vein" is the subject of a contract between private investors and MMC Chile which is 50% owned by Medinah USA.  All other "shears/veins" identified throughout the mining process revert back to the 50-50 ownership of Medinah USA and the Quijano family.  The vast majority of the mineralization identified by the IP/IR studies at LDM sits in the "manto/skarn" structures immediately east of the shear zone.  ACA Howe notes that the "hanging wall" (westernmost wall) of the shear zone well to the west of the new vein discovery which hosted the LDM Mine's historical production is still one of the primary targets of the shear zone.  The discards from the historical mining process (the "tailings") at the LDM Mine weigh in at a healthy 5.39 grams per tonne of gold which indicates the archaic nature of the mining methods available at the time.  Due to the lack of technology "visual gold" was the target of nearly all predecessor mining efforts."

 

Geological Map of LDM Claims Area The yellow line represents the mine shafts. The vertical mine shaft of course is straight into the page located at previous drill hole pad 99-02. The horizontal decline mine shaft is depicted by the yellow line. It will be dug so as to pass through the gold zone identified in drill hole 99-01 and then connect up with the vertical mine shaft. You should be able to get an idea of just how small area that this covers of the LDM. This claim map is old..and since that time-Juan has swallowed up all the area around the old LDM claim block and added it to Medinah's holdings.
A Geological Map of LDM Area The little red box represents the LDM claim block. The little white area with spots in it I believe represents areas of hydrothermal alteration of the rock. The main Alto De Lipangue claims blocks are off the screen to the East etc.
Aerial image of the LDM The "mine shaft location" is actually the location of the vertical mine shaft which is colocated at drill hole 99-02.
New LDM Access Road. This exits into our neighbor's claims area and then down into the valley. This is probably how the ore trucks will transport the gold ore from the mine. There might be some sort of gravity separation process equipment set-upon our neighbor's property that could be used to concentrate the ore prior to smelting.

POLO

On July 9, 2009, Medinah reported the acquisition of a 15% interest in the POLO claims 1-780 covering a surface area of approximately 3,000 hectares in the lower Andes Mountain range located near Santa Cruel in the VIII region about 600 km (360 miles) to the south of Santiago, Chile. In the April 15, 2011 Shareholder Update, the company announced that a Letter of Intention was signed on 4/11/2011 with International Copper Company Chile LTD to undertake an exploration program with the potential of ICCC to earn up to 85% of the total POLO group of claims.

According to the May 12, 2011 company update, two crews representing the International Copper Company Chile (ILCC) are presently on-site at the POLO claims completing their geological assessment and preparing their work program.

As of the July 21, 2011 company update, "the ILCC lawyers are now documenting a contract pursuant to the terms as posted on the Medinah Minerals, Inc. website dated April 15, 2011."

On August 31, 2011, the company updated that ICC's geological team was unable to complete the assessment of the POLO claims due to snowfall and winter weather. As such, the property owners extended the option period for completion as soon as weather permits.

PONIENTE, ORIENTE AND SUR

At a Medinah Gold shareholders meeting in October 2012, it was announced that Medinah Gold would merge with American Sierra Gold Corp (AMNP). As such, the following Medinah Gold property ownership was brought into AMNP:

1) 75% interest in the Gilda mining cliams which are 900 hectares located 42 kilometers southeast of Copiapo in the Atacama desert Region III of Chile. The deposits found in these claims consist of copper breccias, copper veins and gold veins.
2) 10% interest in the Jota group of claims in northern Chile, near Iqueque.
3) Ownership interest in a 600 hectares mining property in Chile, called Caleu. This property is located in western, central Chile, approximately 40kms outside of Santiago, Chile.

It should be noted that according to American Sierra's SEC Form S4 Prospectus filed 12/14/2012, that Medinah Minerals owns 13.8% of AMNP. In addition, given the ownership interests of JJ Quijano, Larry Regis (also elected Chairman), Kleen Investments, MMC Mines, Inc and GXK Ventures (Les Price), that Medinah Minerals has a dominating interest in AMNP.
 

SOCIEDAD CONTRACTUAL MINERA AMERICAN MEDINAH GOLD (AMG) - JOTA Group of Claims

Certificado of ownership

According to comments by JJ and the BOD at the February 2012 AGM, the Jota property has over 100 drill holes over 20Km with 100 meter step outs.  Based on $1,600 per ounce of gold and JJ's estimate of $6 billion worth of gold, this would represent a rough estimate of about 3.75 million ounces. The preliminary work was performed 15 years ago by "the State" (Codelco), the Germans and the Japanese and the average grades were 0.45 grams of gold per tonne. Considering that gold was only $280 per ounce at the time, the Jota deposit would have been marginally economic. Obviously with gold at $1600 per ounce, the economic value of Jota is more compelling which is why JJ subsequently bought the property.

As stated above, the JOTA property was part of a documentary filmed by The Discovery Channel in late January-early February, 2013. The filming took place at the JOTA property and JJ Quijano was included in the documentary. The Discovery Channel show will be an off season series off-shoot of their very popular "Gold Rush" show, featuring Todd Hoffman and his crew, as seen in this clip which aired at the Gold Rush season finale on 2/22/2013.  JJ Quijano appears near the end of the clip with the Hoffmans in a helicopter as depicted in the below picture.

PUMILLAHUE (Vacated 11/17/2011)

On June 1, 2009, Medinah became the legal owner of 5% percent of the total issued shares of the private company, Minera Pumillahue formed to develop a placer gold operation in southern Chile. On November 5, 2010, Medinah reported that the Pumillahue holding is presently the subject of a complete review and reassessment by a Russian Mining consortium. Señor Quijano advises that this change of mining prioritization and certain management positions will create a much better potential value in the near future. As of March 8, 2011, Medinah Minerals Chile members are actively participating in the reorganization of the Pumillahue claims, and Turner plant operation alterations. In the company update from 11/17/2011, it was revealed that the Pumillahue claim was vacated by all partners including Mednah, due to the partners' eluctance to address a "cash call" demand for $150,000 to maintain ownership of the claim.

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