Oidon Company, Ltd. (OIDN)

[prettynpink]

Gold Mineralisation in Colombia,
South America

A Brief Introduction

Colombia purports, by far, the longest and most productive history of gold exploitation in South America (Table 1, below), dating from both the pre-Colombian period, and Spanish colonial to recent times. This fact can be primarily attributed to two observations. Firstly, the region geographically occupied by Colombia is geologically underlain by a wide diversity of rock-types and formations which, due to their mode of formation, and the highly active tectonic environment in which they formed, have given rise to a great wealth of mineral abundance (not only in gold, but potentially in silver, copper, zinc, mercury, antimony, platinum and many other metals). Secondly, due to the active process of "mountain-building", the Andean region of Colombia has undergone extensive uplifting and erosion of the various rock formations; an essential process which allows the mineral deposits formed at depth within the earth to be exposed at the earth's surface, and hence to be "discovered". Additionally the process of erosion of these deposits through the action of rain and rivers concentrates the heavy precious metals within residual or alluvial (river) "seams", greatly facilitating, from an artisanal perspective, the extraction and recovery of the gold.

About two-thirds of historic Colombian gold production has come from residual or alluvial mines, and has been extracted via crude artisanal means utilising a minimum of expense or technology. Regardless, the real gold potential to be observed in modern-day Colombia is that which remains in her relatively un-tapped hard rock or in situ resources, as observed throughout the Andean region of the country. The hard rock gold occurrences of Colombia exhibit a wide variety of forms and styles, the formation of which is primarily dictated by fundamental geologic (geo-tectonic, -chemical, and -structural) parametres, and the erosional level at which the mineral occurrence is exposed. Thus, Colombia is endowed with a broad spectrum of gold deposit types spanning high-level "epithermal" silver-gold-zinc-copper-lead occurrences associated with partially eroded volcanic complexes and/or hypabyssal plutonic rocks (as seen in the Paramo de Frontino, or the historic Buriticá and Marmato-Echandía camps), to intermediate level "porphyry or intrusive" associated gold +/-copper-molybdenite-zinc occurrences which form interesting "bulk-mineable" deposits (Providencia or Murindo, Antioquia), to peripheral, structurally controlled, mesothermal high-grade "gold-only" vein deposits where grades averaging well over one ounce of gold per ton are common (the classic producing camps of Segovia-Remedios and La Bramadora are fine examples).

Present-day Colombia suffers from an obvious lack of modern gold exploration. In truth, with very few exceptions, the present-day producing areas in Colombia are precisely coincident with areas of historic production, the histories of the majority of which date from pre-Colombian times. This lack of exploration investment stems from the traditional Colombian attitude: "Why should we go look for more gold deposits, while the ones we have continue to economically produce gold?". With respect to investment from the international community, the perceived social situation in the country has left few potential investors with the infrastructure to initiate activities. Such inactivity has placed the Colombian mineral exploration sector in a clear dichotomy: Colombia, the country which purports the largest historic gold production in South America, presently receives the least exploration funding, from either of the national or international sectors, of any country on the continent. Heedless of such apparent lack of interest, Colombian miners, both artisanal and semi-moderised, continue to produce significant quantities of gold – quantities averaging upwards of 950,000 (declared) ounces troy per year over the last fifteen years (Source: Banco de La Republica de Colombia). This sum has only recently been eclipsed by production levels from other South American countries such as Perú and Chile, which are now receiving the fruits of modern exploration efforts and the installation of modern technologies over the last 20 years. It is noteworthy that, given all the recent international exploration efforts from Guatamala to the tip of Tierra del Fuego, the combined presently proven gold reserves in all of South America only marginally surpass Colombia's historic gold production. This is rather amazing given the fact that there does not exist a single major, modern-equipped, producing hard rock gold mine in Colombia today: and still production continues.

The "hard-rock" gold potential of Colombia remains intact and sparsely tapped; a potential which will be realised by well positioned companies with well positioned and functioning infrastructures. Grupo de Bullet S.A. with it's sixteen year history in the development of Colombian gold projects, it's on-site qualified and experienced technical, legal and administrative team, and one of the largest solicited land positions of any group, public, private, or governmental in the country, remains one of the few companies poised to discover the phenomenal unrealised mineral wealth of Colombia.

TABLE 1: COLOMBIAN HISTORIC GOLD PRODUCTION AS COMPARED TO

OTHER SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES OVER THE PERIOD 1492 TO 1934

(check this site for the table......http://www.grupodebullet.com/gold_in_colombia.htm)

Data from Emmons, "Gold Deposits of the World", 1934, represents estimated historic production from 1492 to 1934. Emmons estimated that approximately two-thirds of all the gold produced in Colombia has come from placer deposits, that is 32,651,140 ounces troy. Note that the remainder, 16,325,472 ounces still exceeds the total estimated production of every Latin American country, with the exception of Brasíl. Also note that Colombian production from 1934 to present has averaged in the 400,000 ounces per year range, from mixed alluvial and hard-rock sources. Thus, total Colombian production approaches 90,000,000 ounces of gold, and such production DOES NOT include the wealth of gold conquered and exported by the Spanish.