Rhyolite breccia cemented by Mn oxides

By Miguel A Heredia

During the eleven week of the year (March 25^th to March 3i^st, 2019), at least 33 press releases were announced by companies working in Mexico, with fifteen disclosing deals and corporate issues, six informing on exploration results, four communicating financial and production results, three announcing financial rounds, three reporting on resources and development of their properties, and two discussing Mexican news. ON MEXICO ISSUES, Mazatlan, Sinaloa will be the venue for the Discovery Mining Conference 2019 from April 2 to 4. Also, Sinaloa State government expects at least US$100M of mining investment during 2019.   ON EXPLORATION, In Sonora, Colibri presented exploration results on its Evelyn and Mezquite projects. In Chihuahua, Kootenay released exploration results from its Columba Silver project and Silver Spruce identified additional drill targets at its Pino de Plata project. In Zacatecas, Advanced Gold started the third phase of drilling at its Tabasqueña project. In the State of Mexico, Impact announced drill results from the El Canelo Vein system within its Zacualpan district project. In Veracruz, Azucar Minerals presented drill results from its El Cobre project.  ON MINING, Telson reported that process testing at its Campo Morado mine in Guerrero shows increase in the production rate by 15%. Sierra Metals reported full year 2018 financial results. First Majestic reported 2018 production results from its Mexican operations. ON FINANCING McEwen closed a registered direct offering for aggregate gross proceeds of US$25M (Fenix project, Sinaloa).  Vangold closed its first tranche of the previous announced private placement for gross proceeds of $335K and increased it to $700K (El Pinguino, Guanajuato). ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT, Mexus Gold announced positive progress towards Au production at its Santa Elena project in Sonora. Goldplay filed a mineral resource estimation and technical report for its san Marcial project in Sinaloa. First Majestic provided an update of its 2018 mineral reserve and resource estimates.   ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES, Odyssey provided an update of its Mexican phosphate project in Baja California Sur. In Jalisco, GoGold acquired and consolidated 29 mining concessions in a large exploration program called Los Ricos. Fortuna Silver reported that CONAGUA has completed its investigation and issued a resolution confirming that no remediation of the nearby Coyote Creek is required (San Jose mine, Oaxaca).  The compnay also filed its fiscal 2018 annual report on form 40-F with the SEC. Minera Alamos filed its annual information form and 2018 annual report on Form 40-F. It also announced results of its annual meeting of shareholders (Mulatos mine, Sonora). GoGold announced results of their annual meeting of shareholders (Parral tailings project, Chihuahua). Consolidated Zinc provided an update regarding a land use agreement in place for its Plomosas mine in Chihuahua. Levon announced the pass away of its CEO and appointed its VP Exploration as interim CEO (Cordero project, Chihuahua). Newmont received Mexican anti-trust approval for its pending acquisition of Goldcorp. Goldcorp, along with Institutional Shareholders Services Inc., continues to recommend that its shareholders vote in favour of the completion of the arrangement. Both companies also announced successful early tender period for exchange offers and consent solicitations. Goldcorp announced support for Newmont special dividend to its shareholders. Great Panther announced resignation of its Director (Topia mine, Durango).

 

ON MEXICO ISSUES

• Mazatlan, Sinaloa, will be the venue for the Discovery Mining Conference 2019 from April 2 to 4. Organizers expect the participation of 70 mining companies and the assistance of 1,000 national and foreigners’ people.
• Sinaloa State, When announcing Mazatlan as the venue for the Discovery Mining Conference 2019, from April 2 to 4, the director of mining in the state, Alfredo Villegas Padilla, announced that this year at least US100M (MXP$1,937M) are expected in mining investment, both in new projects and in the continuity of some existing ones.

ON EXPLORATION

• Colibri Resource Corporation, presented exploration results from its recently completed mapping and sampling programs on their Evelyn and Mesquite projects in Sonora. Highlights include two high grade assays of 43.9 g/t Au and 7.28 g/t Au, and several Au values varying from 0.13 to 0.57 g/t Au, from a shear zone containing orogenic type quartz veins at its Evelyn project. At El Mesquite project, the company geologists confirmed that the mineralization style is of the high sulphidation affinity and encountered Au values ranging from 17 ppb up to almost 1 g/t Au, and from 1 to 152 g/t Ag. Colibri plans to continue the mapping and sampling programs in both properties.
• Kootenay Silver Inc., released exploration results from its ongoing mapping and surface sampling program conducted on its Columba Silver project in Chihuahua. Highlights of the recent field work include the discovery of five new veins, the high-grade values encountered in some of the veins, and the delineation of approximately 2km of strike length in new veins and veins extensions. Some of the significant sampling results are 692 g/t Ag over 0.8m, 426 g/t Ag over 0.70m, 360 g/t Ag over 1.8m, 330 g/t Ag over 2.0m, 275 g/t Ag over 3.5m, 215 g/t A over 3.0m, and 182 g/t Ag over 6.6m. The company is in the process of obtaining permits to conduct a drilling program in the first half of Q2, 2019.
• Silver Spruce Resources Inc., identified additional drill targets at its Pino de Plata project in Chihuahua. Field examination conducted by geologists of the company identified a new zone of over 20 square kilometers of strongly altered rock located to the west of the El Terrero target. It appears to be associated with La Perla Vein and the historic El Terrero workings. Currently, the geological field crews are using a portable XRF (x-ray fluorescence) analyzer and a near-infrared spectrometer to obtain immediate indications of mineralization, pathfinder elements and associated alteration. Several sample lines will be tested on outcrops and soils with the handheld instruments as an orientation survey prior to detailed data collection on a grid pattern.
• Advanced Gold Corp., announced that a phase 3 drilling program is ongoing at its Tabasqueña property in Zacatecas. ”Two targets are planned to be drilled during this program, one is a near surface target and the other deeper to test the boiling zone of the cluster of epithermal veins drilled in the two earlier phases of drilling”. Focus of the phase 3 drilling program is to drill deeper to target the boiling zone of the epithermal vein system
• Impact Silver Corp., announced results of the initial six holes program drilled on the El Canelo Vein within its Zacualpan district project in the State of Mexico. Four of the six holes encountered encouraging mineralized intersections. Significant intercepts are in hole Z19-01 with 4.84 g/t Au, 24 g/t Ag, and 0.1% Cu (5.27 g/t AuEq) over 2.69m (TW); hole Z19-03 with 1.64 g/t Au, 39 g/t Ag, and 0.93% Cu (3.46 g/t AuEq) over 1.17m (TW), and hole Z19-04 with 1.01 g/t Au, 99 g/t Ag, and 0.97% Cu (3.61 g/t AuEq) over 0.35m (TW).
• Azucar Minerals Ltd., presented drill results from El Porvenir and Suegro zones within its El Cobre project in Veracruz. El Suegro target is located 250m south of El Porvenir Zone, and the mineralization is associated with an altered intrusive displaying locally intense phyllic alteration overprinting potassic alteration. Significant drill intersections at El Porvenir Zone were encountered in hole EC-18-056 with 184m of 0.48 g/t Au and 0.16% Cu, including 72.50m of 0.99 g/t Au and 0.26% Cu, and 28.50m of 1.66 g/t Au and 0.33% Cu, and in hole EC-18-062 with 194.55m of 0.23 g/t Au and 0.16% Cu, including 47.25m of 0.44 g/t Au and 0.16% Cu, and 36m of 0.49 g/t Au and 0.17% Cu. At the Suegro Zone, significant drill intersections were encountered in hole EC-18-064 with 109.30m of 0.24 g/t Au and 0.13% Cu, including 3m of 0.93 g/t Au and 0.43% Cu, and in hole EC-18-06 with 130.50m of 0.16 g/t Au and 0.15% Cu, including 13m of 0.26 g/t Au and 0.17% Cu. “The newly discovered Suegro zone demonstrates the potential for multiple porphyry centers over a five kilometers strike”.

ON MINING

• Telson Mining Corporation, reported that a significant increase in production at its Campo Morado mine in Guerrero can be achieved by reducing the size of crushed mineral mill feed. With this, Telson plans to increase the SAG Mill throughput processing rate by at least 15%.
• Sierra Metals Inc., presented full year 2018 financial results from its mining operations. The company had revenue of $232.4M and adjusted EBITDA of $89.8M on throughput of 2,325,288 tonnes and metal production of 2.72M Oz Ag, 33.9M Lb Cu, 27.7M Lb Pb, 76.8M Lb Zn, and 7,743 Oz Au or 18M Oz AgEq, 95.2M Lb CuEq, and 251 M Lb ZnEq for the year 2018.
• First Majestic Silver Corp., announced 2018 production results of its Mexican operations. The next table shows figures by mine:

ON FINANCING

• McEwen Mining Inc., closed a registered direct offering for aggregate gross proceeds of US$25M. Insiders of the company, including Rob McEwen subscribed for US$3M of the offering (Fenix project, Sinaloa).
• Vangold Mining Corp., closed its first tranche of the previous announced private placement for gross proceeds of $335K. It also increased it private placement to $700K (El Pinguino, Guanajuato

 

ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT

• Goldplay Exploration Ltd., filed a mineral resource estimation and technical report for its San Marcial project in Sinaloa. “The report documents a maiden mineral resource estimate for the initial 500 m long x 100 m wide resource area, part of a 3.5 km mineralized exploration corridor at the San Marcial Project”. Indicated resources are 7.6M of tonnes at grades of 117 g/t Ag, 0.5% Zn, and 0.3% Ob (or 147 g/t AgEq) containing 29M Oz Ag, 86M Lb Zn, and 53M Lb Pb or 36M Oz AgEq. Inferred resources are 3.39M tonnes of 91 g/t Ag, 0.35% Zn, and 0.1%Pb (or 108 g/t AgEq) containing 10M Oz Ag, 26M Lb Zn, and 8M Lb Pb or 12M Oz AgEq.
• Mexus Gold US, announced positive progress towards Au production at its Santa Elena project in Sonora. The company has already purchased a CAT front end loader and a Gardner Denver hydraulic track mounted blast drill. It also confirmed that the company has sufficient ore grades to begin a 3500 ton per week mining operation with expected grades of 4 grams Au per ton.
• First Majestic Silver Corp., updated its mineral reserve and resource estimates as of December 31, 2018. Figures by mine are showed in the next tables:

ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES

• Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc., provided an update of its Mexican phosphate project in Baja California Sur. The company has advised that a legal step has been taken to defend shareholder interests and realize the full economic value in the development of the project due to the negative decision of the past administration of Mexico to authorize the development of its project. Odyssey has filed a claim against Mexico under Chapter eleven of NAFTA.
• GoGold Resources Inc., signed an option agreement to acquire and consolidate 29 mining concessions in a large exploration program called Los Ricos in Jalisco. The consolidated area covers 22,000 ha and is located approximately 100km NW of Guadalajara City. As part of the option agreement to consolidate the concessions of this large-scale exploration property, the Company will make an upfront payment of $70K, monthly payments of $12K for the first 12 months, monthly payments of $20K for months 13 to 24, monthly payments of $30K for months 25 to 36, monthly payments of $31.5K for the months 37 to 60. It also includes a 2% NSR on five of the concessions. If the company elects to exercise the option, a lump sum payment not to exceed $11 million can be made at any time within the six year option period.
• Fortuna Silver Mines Inc., reported that CONAGUA has completed its investigation and issued a resolution on the overflow of the contingency pond at the dry stack tailings facility at its San Jose mine in Oaxaca. CONAGUA confirmed that no remediation of the nearby Coyote Creek is required but the company received a fine of approximately $US42K related to the incident. On the other hands, it also filed its fiscal 2018 annual report on form 40-F with the SEC.
• Alamos Gold Inc., filed its annual information form and 2018 annual report on Form 40-F. It also announced results of its annual meeting of shareholders (Mulatos mine, Sonora).
• GoGold Resources Inc., announced results of their annual meeting of shareholders (Parral tailings project, Chihuahua).
• Consolidated Zinc Limited, announced that a local rancher with which the company has a land use agreement commenced legal proceedings against the Mexican subsidiary that owns the Plomosas mine in Chihuahua, to terminate the agreement. Legal advises received by the company determined there was no basis for the proceedings.
• Levon Resources Ltd., announced the pass away of its CDEO and appointed its VP Exploration as interim CEO (Cordero project, Chihuahua).
• Newmont Mining Corporation, received the Mexican anti-trust approval for its pending acquisition of Goldcorp Inc. Goldcorp, along with Institutional Shareholders Services Inc., continues to recommend that its shareholders vote in favour of the completion of the arrangement. Both companies also announced successful early tender period for exchange offers and consent solicitations. Goldcorp announced support for Newmont Special Dividend to its shareholders. The dividend delivers value to existing Newmont shareholders with an immediate cash payment for a portion of the synergy potential arising from the Nevada joint venture announced with Barrick Gold Corporation.
• Great Panther Mining Limited, announced resignation of its Director (Topia mine, Durango).

Content like what you have just read can be seen at https://gambusinoprospector.com/ and at LinkedIn’s Mexico Mineral Exploration Group.

On the picture above, a rhyolite breccia cemented by Mn oxides in a prospect in Chihuahua, Mexico.  Photo by Miguel A Heredia.