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Samex Mining Corp fka SMXMF RSS Feed

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SMXMF on US OTC Market: http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/SMXMF/quote
SXG on the Toronto Stock Exchange http://www.tsx.com/en/

Website: http://www.samex.com/
news http://www.samex.com/news/News.html
financials http://www.samex.com/financials/financials.htm
coreshack http://www.samex.com/Coreshack/corehome.htm
request info http://www.samex.com/request_info.htm
tour a quick profile http://www.samex.com/tour/quick_profile.htm

122,285,219 Outstanding Shares as of March 31, 2011

SAMEX - A Close-Up View of the Prospects by Adrian Douglas (2008)
SAMEX - The Elephant Hunters by Adrian Douglas (2006)

 

SAMEX PROPERTIES

LOS ZORROS PROPERTY, CHILE

The Los Zorros Property in the Atacama region of northern Chile is located approximately 60 kilometers south of the city of Copiapo, Chile. Although gold is the primary focus of SAMEX's exploration at Los Zorros, important values of silver and copper are also present in certain target areas. The Los Zorros property holding consists of multiple project areas that cover approximately 80 square kilometers within a district of scattered numerous small mines and prospects where there was sporadic attempts at small-scale production for gold and copper-silver in the past. The Company's Chilean subsidiary, Minera Samex Chile, S.A., has mineral rights to 65 exploitation mining concessions that cover an area of approximately 7,782 hectares that comprise the Los Zorros property in Chile. The Company acquired the concessions by a combination of staking and acquisition through government auctions (approximately 6,049 hectares), a purchase agreement (1,429 hectares), and by the exercise of two purchase option contracts (209 hectares and 95 hectares). Metal-laden hydrothermal fluids thought to be derived from the younger porphyritic intrusions, likely expelled out along fault structure pathways and into favorable sedimentary intervals to form the significant gold and copper-silver mineralized areas of Cinchado, Nora, Milagro, and Milagro Pampa. There are also many outlying mineral occurrences at Los Zorros yet to be systematically explored by SAMEX including: La Florida and Lora (gold and copper-gold), Virgen de Carmen and Colorina (copper-silver; possible deeper-seated gold and copper-gold), and Salvadora and Cresta de Gallo (barite vein systems with possible deeper-seated gold and copper-gold).



The Los Zorros property contains numerous large-sized gold, silver and copper targets on a single property holding and thus represents a very important, strategic opportunity for SAMEX. The property is geologically well-situated within the highly prospective mining belt that contains the copper-gold ore bodies of the Punta del Cobre District (150 million cumulative tonnes with an average grade of 1.5% copper, 0.2 to 0.6 g/mt gold, 2 - 8 g/t silver), the large Candelaria mine (460 million tonnes containing 0.82% copper, 0.22 g/mt gold, 3.1 g/mt silver), the large, mined-out Chanarcillo silver deposit (+100 million ounces of silver), plus many smaller copper-gold and gold ore bodies which still locally support mining operations. Infrastructure for large mining activity is readily available in the area with power, transportation, water, communications and manpower all within advantageously close distances. Because of the large size of the property, and the fact that our exploration is still in progress, the information and ideas behind the targets currently being developed must be considered as an evolving picture. The possibility of defining further new targets and project areas on the property remains strong.

What has been revealed geologically at Los Zorros has provided SAMEX with strong impetus to explore for multiple precious metal deposits that may be clustered beneath the widespread precious metal occurrences in this little-explored district of historic small mining activity.
During 2004, we completed 8,617 meters of diamond core drilling in 26 holes, 10,800 meters of bulldozer trenching in 65 trenches and more than 3,100 trench and surface samples/assays; and an additional 1,865 meters of trenching (10 trenches/559 samples) during 2005. With the Company's land position now satisfactorily expanded, the Company is using the historic names of the various mines and landmarks to identify the various project areas.

 

Old Project Area
New (Historic) Property Name
Commodity
Phase I (2004-2005) Results
Exploration Area I
Lora
Copper, Gold, Moly
 
 
Lora S.E.
 
 
Exploration Area II
Milagro
Gold, Silver
DDH-ML-04-01 with 2.579 g/mt gold over 4.4 meters true width
 
Milagro Pampa
Gold, Silver, Copper
 
 
Florida
 
 
 
West Florida
Gold
Trench TMW-10 with .405 g/mt gold over 138 meters
Exploration III
Nora
Gold
DDH-N-04-05 with 15.96 g/mt gold over 7.66 meter;
Trench TN-9 with 0.757 g/mt gold over 131 meters;
Trench TN-3 with 0.558 g/mt gold over 117 meters
Exploration IV
Cinchado
Gold, Silver, Copper
Values ranging from 0.05 to 9.5 g/mt gold in 151 rock-chip samples of breccia in the open-cut of the old San Pedro mine
Exploration V
Salvadora
Gold, Silver, Copper
 
Exploration VI
Colorina
Gold, Silver, Copper
 
Exploration VII
Virgen del Carmen
Gold, Silver, Copper
 



Our first phase exploration, trenching and drilling during 2004 and 2005 was conducted in the Nora, Milagro, and Lora areas, which are only a portion of the project areas at the Los Zorros property. SAMEX resumed exploration at the Los Zorros Property in 2009. The encouraging results from phase I exploration, trenching and drilling during 2004-2005 provide important guides for our current exploration that is focused on designing future exploration drilling programs for these areas. As described below, the Los Zorros property contains numerous significant project areas on a single property holding and thus represents a very important, strategic opportunity for SAMEX. The Cinchado, Colorina, Virgin del Carmen, and Salvadora areas at Los Zorros have yet to be explored by drilling. The Milagro, Nora, Cinchado and Milagro Pampa projects are being simultaneously advanced and prepared for a drilling program to test multiple large gold targets for Carlin-style ore bodies. A "Milagro Gold Project" graphics plate with map-views, cross-section and photos has been posted on the SAMEX website at www.samex.com for viewing in conjunction with this summary information.

CINCHADO

Our exploration work at the Los Zorros Property during 2009 identified a significant Carlin-type breccia- and sediment-hosted gold exploration target in the Cinchado Project area. The target is positioned in a large down-faulted structural block adjacent to an up-thrown fault block containing a wedge-shaped breccia body. This 40-meter thick breccia was historically exploited for gold on a small scale at the San Pedro mine. Detailed exploration work by SAMEX indicates that the gold mineralized breccia of the San Pedro mine may be a small, faulted-off portion of a more extensive breccia body beneath the Cerro (Mt.) Cinchado area.

The San Pedro Mine is situated at the south end of Cerro Cinchado, a prominent, isolated mountain. A review of the results of numerous surface, underground chip and bulk samples taken by the previous owner during underground mining activities between 1979 and 1987, and before the onset of open-cut mining, show historical gold grades in the breccia ranging from 0.2 to 37 grams/tonne with an average grade of around 3.2 grams/tonne. A former mine operator who conducted open cut mining of the breccia from 1991 to 1993 also reported an average grade of just over 3 grams/tonne. These historic results have not been verified by SAMEX. However, continuous rock-chip sampling by SAMEX of breccia exposures left around the pit walls (71 samples) gave an average gold content of 1.905 g/mt and a range of gold values of 0.037 to 9.5 grams/tonne with 38 of the samples (53%) containing greater than 1 gram/tonne gold.

The breccia of the San Pedro mine is composed of clasts including jasperoid silica, altered calcareous siltstone, skarn, several igneous rock types, limestone, and breccia. The gold-mineralized breccia body is a nearly flat to gently dipping wedge-shaped body which can be traced out eastward to distal parts with negligible gold content, but containing a characteristic suite of anomalous Cu, Ag, Zn and anomalous pathfinder metals (As, Sb, Hg) with much coarse-bladed barite deposition.

Of particular importance, geologic mapping has found that these same distal features (including a zone of breccia/brecciated limestone in-filled with abundant coarse-bladed barite, jasperoid mantos layers, jasperoid (+/-barite) veins/veinlets with 40 anomalous copper and pathfinder metal content) can be traced in outcrop in continuous fashion for 1,200 meters semi-circular distance around the entire east and north sides of Cerro Cinchado (the down-faulted block). The evidence in these distal outcrops provides significant credence for the gold exploration target defined at Cinchado. Jeffrey Dahl, President and CEO remarked, "The San Pedro breccia and these distal breccia outcrops could be the flared-out edge to a large, central, mineralized breccia beneath the dome-shaped Cerro Cinchado - this may be just the tip of the iceberg. If our exploration confirms this model, it could have a very positive impact on the Company."

NORA - High Grade Gold Target

Nora is a large area hosting a complex swarm of numerous copper-gold-mineralized barite veins and a series of broad zones of anomalous gold we exposed by trenching. The upper oxide parts of some principal veins of the swarm have been mined historically on a small scale for gold, copper and barite. Exploration work we carried out at Nora during 2004 included: geologic mapping and surface outcrop rock-chip sampling mostly across principal vein structures (193 samples), approximately 2,000 meters of trenching (14 trenches/520 channel samples), and 3,799.5 meters of core drilling in 10 holes, and during 2005, an additional 1,865 meters of trenching (10 trenches/559 samples).

During phase I drilling at Nora, an impressive, mantos-style (layered), high-grade gold intersection (15.96 g/mt gold over 7.66 meters or 0.51 oz/mt over 25.12 ft.) was made in drill hole DDH-04-05. The intersected gold mineralization occurs in a complicated package of volcaniclastic detrital rocks, volcanic breccia, and minor siliclastic sedimentary rocks. The highest grades of gold occur within a distinctly layered clastic sequence and specifically within two, closely spaced, unique black-matrix breccia sub-intervals which have been silicified and contain abundant disseminated pyrite and minor chalcopyrite. A 250-meter wide alteration halo surrounds the gold mineralized interval and consists of a narrow outer chloritic zone and thick interior zone of silica-clay-pyrite with scattered veinlets of quartz-pyrite+/-chalcopyrite. Coincident with the alteration halo are numerous anomalous to highly anomalous values of copper, mercury, and silver and many elevated (>25 ppb to <100 ppb range) to anomalous (>100 ppb range) gold values. This alteration and geochemical expression suggests strong and widespread mineralizing processes were associated with the deposition of the gold-rich interval.

Importantly, the high-grade, gold-mineralized interval is possibly widespread beneath the NORA area. The substantial width of the haloes of both the associated hydrothermal alteration and anomalous values of copper, mercury, and silver, plus elevated to anomalous gold surrounding the gold-mineralized interval in DDH-N-04-05, indicate a strong mineralizing system that could have produced an extensive gold ore body of moderate- to high-grade nature. This may be supported by the presence at the surface, of numerous copper-gold-mineralized barite veins and a series of north-trending broad zones of anomalous gold exposed by trenching which may be leakage up from the deeper seated, high-grade, gold-mineralized mantos. These anomalous gold zones may prove to comprise an important guide to deeper seated high-grade gold mineralization. The area of veins and anomalous gold zones measures 1,200 meters by 1,000 meters and if the gold-rich mantos layer extends beneath much of this prospective area, a large target could be present. This target potential is conceptual in nature, there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource at Nora and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in discovery of a mineral resource within the NORA area.

MILAGRO

Milagro is an area where gold was previously mined on a small scale at the Milagro Mine via open cut methods. The gold mineralization within the small local mine workings occurs with distinct clay alteration and silicification and may be muchmore extensive beneath surrounding areas to the previous mining activity. PIMA analyses of altered tuff samples from the mine area show mineral assemblages typical of high-level epithermal gold-mineralized systems (opaline, silica, silica-jarosite, alunitehalloysite-montmorillonite, smectite-kaolinite, serecite-pyrophyllite, illite-silica, gypsum-silica and jarosite silica).

During recent exploration during the first quarter of 2010 in the Milagro Project area, an elongate outcrop of jasperoid/silica breccia was sampled and returned precious metal values ranging from 0.39 to 2.01 grams/tonne gold and 3.1 to 28 grams/tonne silver (eight chip samples, each across approx. 0.5 meters). The discovery of this Carlin-style jasperoid/silica breccia occurrence may have positive implications for the overall extent and target size of the Milagro Project area, where our phase I drill hole ML-04-01 encountered 97.3 meters averaging 0.302 g/t gold, including 2.579 g/t gold over 4.7 meters (previously reported in 2005).

Importantly, the outcropping gold-bearing leakage features provide strong credence to extend the area previously considered prospective at the Milagro Project, an additional kilometer to the southeast. The target implications will be incorporated into the ongoing exploration program and be reported on in greater detail in the future.

At the Milagro Project, a dense gabbro sill caps gold mantos layers and a +/-90-meter-thick underlying breccia, which also contains highly anomalous gold. The capping gabbro sill appears to have acted as a barrier to ascending mineralizing fluids, which then pooled and spread out beneath it in favorable stratigraphic intervals producing gold-mineralized mantos and a thick breccia layer. The gabbro and underlying thick gold-mineralized package of mantos and breccia are open down-dip in a southeast direction and have not yet been drill tested.

At the northwest end of the project area one of the gold-mineralized mantos layers is exposed in shallow open cuts at the historic Milagro mine. Earlier phase I exploration drilling was limited to only two core holes near the Milagro mine to initially determine the character and geologic features of the gold mineralization. It is highly encouraging to observe Carlin-style precious metal mineralized jasperoid/silica breccia in outcrop more than a kilometer away to the southeast. It demonstrates that mineralizing fluids leaked upwards along fault-controlled pathways through the capping gabbro and suggests the area of gold mineralization beneath the gabbro may be more extensive.

Similar Carlin-style gold mineralization and alteration features have also been observed at the neighbouring Nora and Cinchado Project areas of the Los Zorros Property. Importantly, SAMEX's exploration work at the Los Zorros property has corroborated many geologic features as being analogous to the Carlin Trend district in Nevada. These observations and results have significant implications for target models and exploration programs going forward. Geologic fieldwork, in part is focused on finding and mapping the distribution of these leakage features to help guide future exploration drilling efforts.

MILAGRO PAMPA

The Milagro Pampa area hosts a stockwork-veined, sericite-clay-quartz-altered/pyritized gabbro sill with strongly anomalous copper-gold-silver and mercury content which is concealed beneath pampa cover and was discovered during Phase I drilling in hole ML-04-03. The strong alteration, anhydrite and quartz-pyrite stockwork veining, and highly anomalous copper content intersected suggests that Milagro Pampa is near the center of the intrusive porphyry source of the mineralizing system. The hole did not quite reach and penetrate through the floor of an altered and mineralized gabbro body, but garnet skarn xenolith blocks comprising the last twenty meters suggest that the hole was stopped near the floor contact with underlying rock. The strong alteration, pyritization and variable anomalous copper over the entire length of the hole may comprise the outer halo to substantial gold-copper mineralization hosted in altered porphyry and layered skarnoid sedimentary and volcaniclastic rocks that likely underlie the gabbro body.

In light of the gold mineralization being concentrated just below the floor of the gabbro unit at the Milagro Mine, exploration results make a strong case to test for copper-gold mineralization underlying the gabbro in the Milagro Pampa area. The fault bounded prospective area of Milagro Pampa measures 1000 meters by 500 meters with the top of the target becoming progressively deeper in a down-dip direction to the east (ranging approximately 400 to 500 meters vertical depth).

FLORIDA

To the east of West Florida target lies the Florida target. Phase 1 drilling of four holes F1, F2, ML6, and ML7 revealed a sequence of sedimentary rocks overlying a sequence of evaporite (gypsum-anhydrite) rocks. The underlying sequence including the lower part of the anhydrite unit is replaced by variable amounts of banded massive pyrite and specular hematite. The altered packages of sedimentary rock below and above the gypsum-anhydrite unit were found to contain anomalous amounts of silver, copper, mercury, and arsenic. Upper and lower subintervals of anomalous gold importantly also occur within the altered sedimentary rock packages. The geological setting of reactive calcareous sedimentary rocks, the character of the alteration (silicification) and the geochemical signature of prominently anomalous amounts of pathfinder metals: mercury and arsenic suggest that the intersected thick mantos interval could be the more-distal, low-grade part to a large epithermal gold-silver deposit. Drilling a series of vertical holes spaced at 150 meters apart will be required during a phase-two drill program to determine if there is a gradient of improving gold and silver grades which can be followed into a discovery.

WEST FLORIDA

West Florida is an area where Phase I trenching and sampling exposed silicified and clay-altered quartz-eye porphyritic intrusion with significantly anomalous gold content including a 138-meter interval averaging 0.405 g/mt. The gold mineralized/altered intrusion intrudes up through a little-altered, thick diorite sill and coincides with a well-defined gravity low. The surface outcropping, oval-shaped area of gold mineralized quartz-eye porphyritic dacite intrusion encompasses approximately 200 meters wide by 400 meters long. Similar altered/mineralized porphyritic intrusion outcrops/daylights elsewhere in the vicinity, indicating the target extends over a much greater distance beneath the surrounding area.

LORA

The Lora project at Los Zorros is situated in an area of pampa and low-lying hills with numerous prospected showings of fault-hosted, fracture-controlled and veinleted, oxide-copper mineralization. Bulldozer trenching exposed a large copper-gold-molybdenum
anomaly within variably leached rocks over an area measuring approximately 1,000-meters long and 800-meters wide (open-ended to the east) with anomalous copper (>250 ppm), gold (>100 ppb) and elevated molybdenum (>10 ppm) in trench (see table below) and outcrop samples.

The geologic setting of this target has been disclosed by trenching to be porphyritic diorite and quartz diorite which has been strongly hypogene altered (clay-silica and sericite-pyrite) and cut by later igneous dikes. Strong supergene effects have produced secondary clays plus iron-oxide and oxide-copper minerals. The oxide-copper mineralization occurs in all rock types mostly as copper wad and chysocolla along abundant fractures, structurally controlled wide zones of multiple orientation, and as strong disseminations in altered diorite. The original copper mineralization appears likely to have been comprised of goldbearing, copper sulfide (chalcopyrite) associated with the hypogene alteration within the porphyritic dioritic rocks.

During our phase-one drilling program in 2004, six core drill holes tested only a portion of the porphyry intrusions, encountering long intervals of low-grade copper/gold mineralization in each hole. Drilling was principally along a 500-meter-long fence of four inclined holes (P1, P2, P3, P4) which were spaced on an east-west line, systematically testing across the central part of the large copper/gold anomaly defined earlier by trenching. Two additional inclined holes (P5 and P6) were drilled 200-meters southwest, and 400-meters south of the fence, respectively. Evaluation of the drill data suggests that this mineralization may represent the low-grade, distal zone or outer halo to more intensely altered and better mineralized parts of the porphyry copper/gold system within the Lora area. Further exploration is required in the Lora area to search for higher grade oxide and secondary sulfide mineralization which may be advantageously positioned at shallow depths and for proto-ore zones of combined high copper/gold grade with significant width.

COLORINA

Colorina is an area of strong hydrothermal alteration with geochemical values of gold, silver and copper that are characteristic of the high-level part, or outer halo, of a possible deeper seated epithermal, precious metal system. A unique feature of the alteration found in the Colorina area is its unusually high sodium enrichment which is similarly reported to occur associated with the large copper/gold deposits of the Candelaria and Punta del Cobre District situated 40 kilometers north of Los Zorros. The area of alteration is hosted in a thick diorite sill and measures 1500-meters (north-south) by 400- to 800-meters across (east-west). The center of the alteration is just outboard in low-lying pampa to the west of a higher, range-front mine where barite breccia and mantos-hosted oxide-copper-silver mineralization was exploited on a small scale. The alteration is characterized by hematite-clay-silica with later fracture-controlled superimposed clay-silica. This style of alteration and weakly anomalous gold, silver, copper suggests a position above perhaps deeper seated, gold-copper-silver (Candelaria-type), or goldsilver (Andacollo-type) mantos- and related vein zone-hosted mineralization similar to other ore bodies in this lower Cretaceous geologic belt.

Initial reconnaissance chip sampling (44 samples) of scattered outcrops of clay-red hematite altered and silicified porphyry and diorite in the area showed common elevated (0.022 to 0.082 ppm) levels of gold with anomalous silver (1 to 6.1 ppm). Eight samples contained weakly to moderately anomalous gold values (0.173 to 1.22 ppm) with anomalous silver (1.9 to 8.4 ppm), and mercury (110 to 1180 ppb). Higher gold values (two samples, 4.73 ppm and 5.19 ppm) are restricted to a meter-wide, oxide copper-mineralized (to 3.04% copper) northeast-trending structure. High sodium values (most >3%) and strongly depleted calcium (most <0.5%) and magnesium (most <0.2%) in the samples suggest the colorful alteration includes a peculiar sodic metasomatism which is noted to importantly occur associated with the copper-gold deposits at Punta del Cobre and Candelaria located in this same geologic belt. Also in this area, barite-bearing mantos-hosted and breccia-hosted silver and oxide-copper mineralization to several meters thick occurs, replacing a limestone unit just above the zone of altered porphyritic rock. Samples across the mantos and breccia are polymetallic in character containing anomalous copper (0.32% to 1.06%), silver (11.1 to 49.3 ppm), and zinc (1365 ppm to 9230 ppm). Detectible elevated gold values (0.011 to 0.055 ppm) are also present with markedly anomalous amounts of arsenic (2490 ppm to 2560 ppm), mercury (260 to 950 ppb), and antimony (112 to 304 ppm). An intensive program of detailed sampling and trenching has not yet been conducted. However, spot, outcrop chip sampling was extended northward, and a channel cut was taken along a 300-meter-long reconnaissance trench, located 400 meters north of the core area. This east-west oriented bulldozer trench exposed numerous altered zones with widths from a meter to over 50 meters which are separated by intervals of weakly altered to unaltered diorite. Continuous sampling along the trench wall was carried out at 5-meter-long intervals across all rock types. The geochemical analytical results from this trench and other samples within the target area show the common presence of elevated to anomalous gold and silver, high amounts of sodium, and many samples also contain low-level anomalous copper and mercury.

VIRGEN DEL CARMEN

The Virgin del Carmen area is situated along the same range front as the Colorina area and includes an area of previous small mining of oxide-copper-silver-mineralized mantos and breccia which is similar to that exploited at the small mine in the Colorina area. Additional exploration is required to further evaluate the outlying pampa to the west of the Virgen del Carmen mine for alteration/geochemical indications of a target of deeper seated, epithermal, gold-silver-copper
mineralization.

SALVADORA

The Salvadora area is a barite vein system hosted in andesite and volcaniclastic rocks. The system is +700 meters long and nearly 300 meters wide. Historic barite mining activity to shallow depths (+/- 15 meters) focused on steepdipping veins that averaged a meter in width. Barite is commonly associated with gold, silver and gold-silver deposits in epithermal environments. This area requires drilling to test the down-dip character of the veins for possible gold, silver, and copper content. The presence of complicated minor veining locally in outcrops suggests potential for a bulk-tonnage target comprised of spaced major veins with intervening rocks containing abundant minor veins/veinlets.
 

INCA PROPERTY, CHILE
 

The INCA property in the Atacama region of Chile is located approximately 90 kilometers north of the city of Copiapo, Chile and 6.0 kilometers east of the paved highway that connects Copiapo to Diego Del Amargo and the El Salvador Mine. The INCA property and the Company's exploration camp are located about 6 kilometers east of the village of Inca de Oro along a government maintained gravel road leading to the San Pedro de Cachiyuyo district. The INCA property is favorably situated from both a geological and a logistical perspective, being close to important transportation routes, power lines and general mining infrastructure.

Historically, the INCA project area has been the center of small mining activity primarily for production of oxide-copper and some secondary enriched copper sulfide ores. This area hosts variably sized breccia pipes with outcropping, or historically mined copper, molybdenum and gold mineralization and the exploration objective has been to search beneath and around this area for substantial deposits of copper with important gold, silver and molybdenum credits.

During 2006 we completed the construction and equipping of a camp and exploration office at the INCA project and compiled extensive maps of the project area. We also conducted more than 30 line-kilometers of IP geophysical survey over six survey lines. In 2007 we conducted additional geophysical surveys and a program of bulldozer trenching, sampling and assaying was completed. Blasting and bulldozer work was conducted to prepare access roads and drill pads for a Phase I core drilling program. The core-drilling program completed 10,309 meters of drilling in 35 holes, with an average hole length of approximately 300 meters. Generally the program was designed to test shallow targets proximal to existing historic mine workings and coincident with IP geophysical anomalies, for areas of stock-work veining, breccia bodies, and disseminated and/or porphyry style copper-gold-molybdenum mineralization. More specifically the program was set up to test, in systematic fashion, two principal target zones including: the Delirio-Tucumana breccia complex (14 holes) and the Puntilla-San Antonio vein system with a coincident strong IP expression (8 holes). Other target areas received more cursory drilling attention and these include: San Antonio-Providencia (7 holes), Magallanes (2 holes), Manto Cuba-San Pedro (2 holes) and Jardinera (2 holes).

The size and shape of the Providencia mine breccia pipe is not fully exposed by mining and could be over 80 meters across. The pipe is well mineralized with chalcopyrite and abundant accessory pyrite; our initial rock chip-channel samples in the mined areas were taken as a series of both vertical and several horizontal oriented lines. The copper (total) grade of initial chip-channel sampling (25 samples) shows a range via mine level of 1.24% to 2.94% copper with an overall average of 2.16% copper. The presence of strong sericite alteration, anomalous amounts of silver, lead, zinc, and antimony and position of the roof indicate that this level is at the top of the pipe and that very little of the pipe has actually been mined out. A target size of over 10 million metric tonnes is tentatively outlined for this mine-exposed breccia pipe.

The Providencia mine breccia pipe has a distinct IP signature and occurs within what appears to be a cluster of additional concealed, possibly well-mineralized breccia pipes with similar or stronger IP responses, which were disclosed by our regional IP survey. The Providencia breccia cluster is a highly prospective area 1600 meters long by 500 meters across - with several separate IP targets for copper-molybdenum-gold mineralization hosted by sulfide-bearing breccia pipes/elongate tapered bodies and perhaps out into surrounding veinleted zones. One set of our exploration core drill tests on one of the IP anomalies discovered a concealed, faulted part of a breccia pipe (Providencia West) with indications that it contains significant copper and molybdenum mineralization and anomalous silver, lead, and zinc content. This breccia pipe is positioned 700 meters to the west of the Providencia mine where an outcropping sheeted vein swarm with oxide-copper mineralization and tourmalinized/silicified pods of breccia are present over a large area in the monzonite cap above the pipe. Additional drilling is required in the Providencia area to test for other concealed breccia pipes with the objective of discovering multiple ore bodies and the potential deeper source from which these pipes have emanated.

The Company plans to conduct additional meetings and property tours with interested parties in its continuing efforts to arrange a joint venture or sale of all or a portion of the INCA property. Of note, several kilometers to the west, Chilean miner, Codelco, is planning to advance the development of their Inca de Oro ore body, which could serve to further enhance the value of our prospects.


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