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The Mining and Exploration News in Mexico: Highlights on the Third Week of May, 2021.

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Rich-silver banded quartz vein

By Miguel A Heredia

During the 20th week of the year (May 17th to May 23th, 2021), at least 28 press releases were announced by companies working in Mexico and 7 news published by the media, with nine reporting on resources and development, six informing on exploration results, five disclosing deals and corporate issues, five commenting on Mexican issues, five announcing financial rounds, three communicating production results, and two discussing social issues.  ON MEXICO ISSUES, Minera Penmont (Fresnillo plc) thanked the President of Mexico for his comments on the insecurity registered in Sonora. Maria Luisa Albores, Head of the Ministry of Environmental and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), travel to Santa Rosalia to meets with businessmen and workers from El Boleo mining company. Plenary of the Guerrero State Congress approved recently the creation of the Mining Commission. Maria Luisa Albores, Head of the Ministry of Environmental and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) made a series of unfortunate statements against the Mexican mining industry.  ON EXPLORATION, In Sonora, Tocvan received permit for trenching and drilling at its the El Pilar project, Silver Spruce, JV partner of Colibri Resources on Jackie project, discovered a new high-grade exploration target in the property, Ridgestone completed another phase of exploration at its Rebeico project, and Minaurum provided an exploration update on their Alamos and Aurifero projects. In Sinaloa, Vizsla presented results from ten holes drilled on Tajitos Vein at its Panuco project. In Oaxaca, Minaurum provided an update on their Santa Marta and Aurena projects.  ON MINING, Consolidated Zinc provided an update of its Plomosas plant in Chihuahua. Minera Alamos announced that it has successfully executed the first planned production blasts at its Santana project in Sonora. Mag Silver presented Q1, 2021 production and financial results from its Juanicipio project in Zacatecas. ON FINANCING, Canasil closed an oversubscribed non-brokered private placement for gross proceeds of $790K (La Esperanza project, Zacatecas). Defiance announced a brokered private placement for gross proceeds of up to CAD $7.2M (San Acacio project, Zacatecas). Sonoro granted, under its share option plan, incentive stock options to certain directors, officers and consultants to purchase an aggregate of 2M (Cerro Caliche, Sonora). Telson granted incentive stock options to newly appointed directors totaling 2M (Campo Morado, Guerrero). Southern Silver announced that its common shares have commenced to trade on the OTCQX (Cerro Las Minitas, Durango). ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT, Silvertone announced the appointment of a mining contractor and commences to access underground workings at its La Frazada mining property in Nayarit. Azucar Minerals recommenced drilling at its El Cobre property in Veracruz. Capitan Mining released results from eight RC drill holes from its 2021 program on the Capitan gold zone in Durango. Endeavour announced drill results from its Bolañitos property in Guanajuato. GoGold presented results from eight drill holes collared at its Los Ricos North project in Jalisco. Orex contracted SRK Consulting to conduct a resource estimation study on its Coneto property in Durango. Tarachi Gold completed a tailings drilling program at its Magistral project in Durango. Silver Tiger released drill results from its El Tigre project in Sonora.  Sailfish presented an updated mineral resource estimate on its Gavilanes property in Durango. ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES; Fabled announced proposed spinout of its copper assets into Fabled Copper Corp (Santa Maria property, Chihuahua). Chesapeake announced results from its annual general meeting of shareholders (Metates property, Durango). Comet Resources executed a binding agreement to acquire 100% interest in the La Sorpresa III tenement (Santa Teresa property, Baja California). Xali signed a new exploration and production agreement on El Dorado property in Nayarit. Riverside announced that it has recovered from Hochschild the Los Cuarentas project in Sonora. ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, Minera San Xavier (New Gold) and the Archdiocese of San Luis Potosí, announced the reopening of the temple of San Pedro Apóstol in Cerro San Pedro, San Luis Potosi. The Mining Cluster of Sonora AC announced that it will promote a comprehensive safety and work-family balance in mining.

ON MEXICO ISSUES

  • Minera Penmont (Fresnillo plc) thanked the President of Mexico for his comments on the insecurity registered in Sonora. Two years ago, Minera Penmont denounced before state authorities the commission of various crimes, including the invasion of their property, perpetrated by a criminal group that claims to be part of the ejido. This group has absolutely no legal arguments and intends to take over the private property of the company to carry out mining exploitation actions outside the law, without the concession required for it, nor the corresponding environmental permits, using dangerous and controlled materials, directly affecting the Mexican State, the environment, the company and maintaining its criminal acts in the region.
  • Maria Luisa Albores, Head of the Ministry of Environmental and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), traveled to Santa Rosalia to meets with businessmen and workers from El Boleo mining company.  She was entrusted with a consultation to find out the opinion of the population about the expansion of the environmental impact statement (MIA). Minera Boleo requested to expand the area of extraction, processing and shipment of copper minerals.
  • Plenary of the Guerrero State Congress approved recently the creation of the Mining Commission.  The president of the Political Coordination Board (Jucopo) of the local Congress, Alfredo Sánchez Esquivel pointed out that there is a real problem in the case of mining companies and the environment, for which the creation of this Commission was necessary. For his part, the state secretary of Promotion and Economic Development, Álvaro Burgos Barrera, considered the incorporation of a legislative commission to monitor the mining sector as highly relevant. He reported that in the current state administration headed by Héctor Astudillo Flores, governance allowed mining companies to invest approximately USD $2B in Guerrero.
  • Maria Luisa Albores, Head of the Ministry of Environmental and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) made a series of unfortunate statements against the Mexican mining industry. She assured that the country’s mining activity has caused strong environmental effects, monopolizing water and causing social inequality. Her statements are full of biased and wrong information and caused immediately the strong reaction of different actors of the mining sector. Specialists of the sector declared that the view of the federal government has on mining is wrong. CAMIMEX has indicated that of the total water consumption in Mexico, 77% is used by agriculture; 14% is for public use; 5% to generate energy and 4% for industrial use and of the latter only 0.9% corresponds to milling. CAMIMEX also stated that 74% of the water used by this industry is recycled and, of that amount, 55% is continuously reused. In addition, the mining sector has 70 sewage treatment plants in the communities where it operates. There are dams that capture rainwater, which is given to the municipality, piped and sent to homes, when it is necessary. A large percentage of companies carry out social and human rights proceedings. They generate social and environmental programs. In 2019, mining companies allocated MXP $7,450M to actions in favor of the environment and MXP $1,756M to community development, in addition to the MXP $3,496M that were paid to the Mining Fund. Many companies have the largest plant nurseries in the country and have large animal rescue zoos that are delivered to the State. Mining is one of the industries that produces and plants the most trees, 6.6M million trees produced in the nurseries of mining companies; 2.93 million trees planted reforesting an area of more than 3,000 hectares in 2019. The Mexican mining industry is over-regulated and has to comply with seven environmental permits in the stage of exploration and nineteen environmental permits throughout the life of a mine. For the reasons stated above, the mining sector rejects the indications that point to that its activity does not respect the norms of protection of the environment and that it does not generate social welfare for the neighboring communities. That is why the sector unlocks the doors to the authorities with an open invitation to visit the operations and verify for themselves these realities of the mining sector and reliably inform the population.

ON EXPLORATION

  • Tocvan Ventures Corp., received permit for additional seven trenches and forty four drill pads at its the El Pilar project in Sonora. The additional drill pads will be used during the current program and during a phase III program planned for the fall of 2021.
  • Silver Spruce Resources Inc., JV partner of Colibri Resources Corp on Jackie project, discovered a new high-grade exploration target in the property. Silver Spruce discovered a high quality, broadly-zoned geochemical anomaly with multiple mineralized surface rock samples with >0.1 g/t Au and anomalous to highly anomalous base metal and pathfinders element values, ranging up to 9.65 g/t Au and 515 g/t Ag. The target is characterized by an extensive and intense oxide and silicate alteration, which consists of bleached and oxidized argillic zones with anomalous clay minerals and muscovite. Silver Spruce plans to conduct a grid sampling and mapping around this exploration target.
  • Ridgestone Mining Inc., completed another phase of exploration at its Rebeico project, which consisted of geologic mapping, prospecting and sampling around the past producing El Cobre mine. A total of 93 samples were collected and assays are expected to arrive in the coming weeks.
  • Minaurum Gold Inc., provided an exploration update on their Alamos and Aurifero projects in Sonora, and Santa Marta and Aurena projects in Oaxaca.  At Alamos project, the company is planning to resume the phase II of its drilling program shortly, has completed a total of 30,000 m of drilling and discovered 26 separate vein zones. Minaurum is focused on systematically expanding silver shoots discovered in Phase I as well as continuing with aggressive exploration drilling focusing on new discoveries at unmined veins. At Aurifero project, the company has completed compilation of historical exploration data at Aurifero and has re-logged some of the available drill core from the project.  Minaurum will design a drill program and apply for necessary permits in the second half of 2021.
  • Vizsla Silver Corp., presented results from ten holes drilled on Tajitos Vein at its Panuco project in Sinaloa. The most significant drill intersection was encountered in hole NP-21-29 with 1.56 g/t Au and 391 g/t Ag (513 g/t AgEq) over a true width (TW) of 7.76m, including 3.60 g/t Au and 1,157 g/t Ag (1,423 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 1.22m. Vizsla has drilled 32 holes at Tajitos Vein, showing an average weighted grade of 2.1 g/t Au and 329 g/t Ag (505 g/t AgEq) over an average vein TW of 3.08m. Mineralization extends over 575 metres in length, 250 metres deep and remains open to the northeast, southwest and at depth.
  • Minaurum Gold Inc., provided an update on their Santa Marta and Aurena projects in Oaxaca. At Santa Marta project, the company has acquired regional mapping and sampling data indicate the likely presence of additional nearby VMS exploration targets that lie within Minaurum’s property holdings.  Minaurum has designed an initial drill program and submitted a drill permit for environmental approval. At Aurena project, it intends to continue holding and ultimately conducting a Phase II drill program, most efficiently in conjunction with an initial drill program at the nearby Santa Marta project.

ON MINING

  • Consolidated Zinc Limited provided an update of its Plomosas plant in Chihuahua. The Plomosas pant had its first continuous run performing at or better than designed operating capacity. The company also announced that the expansion of Plomosas plant from 100tpd to 200tpd is expected to be completed in Q4, 2021.
  • Minera Alamos Inc., announced that it has successfully executed the first planned production blasts at its Santana project in Sonora. After this, Minera Alamos has already begun on subsequent blasting as the Nicho Norte pit is opened up. This first material will be used to test the leaching circuit and commission the carbon plant prior to continuous loading of the heap leach pad as the Company takes a prudent approach to ramping up operations at Santana throughout the remainder of 2021 ahead of more steady state operation in 2022 and beyond.
  • Mag Silver Corp., presented Q1, 2021 production and financial results from its Juanicipio project in Zacatecas. The company processed 36,395 tonnes through the Fresnillo plant with 458 g/t Ag to produce 431.2K Oz Ag, 631 Oz Au, 306.9K Lb Pb, and 445.8K Lb Zn. Mag reported net sales of USD $10.1M, gross profit of USD $8.2M, net income before tax of USD $6.75M, net income after tax of USD $1.44M, resulting in a MAG equity pick up (44%) of USD $632K. The company also reported a CAPEX of USD $440K, and a cash and cash equivalent of USD $92.8K.

ON FINANCING

  • Canasil Resources Inc., closed an oversubscribed non-brokered private placement for gross proceeds of $790K. Gross proceeds will be used to fund continued drill programs on their projects in Durango and Zacatecas, and for working capital purposes (La Esperanza project, Zacatecas).
  • Defiance Silver Corp., announced a brokered private placement for gross proceeds of up to CAD $7.2M. Net proceeds will be used for exploration of their projects as well as for general working capital purposes (San Acacio project, Zacatecas).
  • Sonoro Gold Corp., granted, under its share option plan, incentive stock options to certain directors, officers and consultants to purchase an aggregate of 2M at a price of $0.3 per common share (Cerro Caliche, Sonora).
  • Telson Mining Corporation granted incentive stock options to newly appointed directors totaling 2M. The options will be exercisable at a price of $0.45 per share for a period of five years (Campo Morado, Guerrero).
  • Southern Silver Exploration Corp., announced that its common shares have commenced to trade on the OTCQX under the ticker symbol SSVFF (Cerro Las Minitas, Durango).

ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Silvertone Metals Corp., announced the appointment of a mining contractor and commences to access underground workings at its La Frazada mining property in Nayarit. Over 3km of underground workings has been identified as being potentially accessible, work has commenced to clean and making safe adits and drifts which will be geologically mapped and systematically channel sampled. “Gaining access to the underground working, will give valuable geological information and help to confirm historical measured & indicated resource of 4.7M Oz Ag and Inferred resource of 3.86M Oz Ag. The information gained from underground will also assist in targeting diamond drilling to test for extensions of the mineralization.”
  • Azucar Minerals Ltd., recommenced drilling at its El Cobre property in Veracruz. The focus for the current drill program in 2021 will be in the Pedregal, Villa Rica, and Encinal Zones of the property. Initially one hole is planned for each area.
  • Capitan Mining Inc., released results from eight RC drill holes from its 2021 program on the Capitan gold zone in Durango. The most significant drill interception  was encountered in hole 21-CARC-24 which returned 0.34 g/t Au over 42.7m, including 0.56 g(/t Au over 10.7m. These last eight holes drilled at the property, completed the previously announced 6,000m drilling program, which consisted of 28 RC holes. All of the RC holes encountered dominantly oxide gold mineralization. “To date, the Capitan gold zone has been traced for over 1.2km long and up to 450m down-dip and remains open in all directions except to the north.
  • Endeavour Silver Corp., announced drill results from its 2021 drilling program at its Bolañitos property in Guanajuato. The drilling program is focused on expanding the Melladito and Belen orebodies. Significant drill intersections were encountered in hole BN-64 collared on the Melladito HW vein which returned 8.09 g/t Au and 1,044 g/t Ag (1,611 g/t AgEq) over a true width (TW) of 1m, including 14.2 g/t Au and 1,974 g/t Ag (2,966 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 0.26m; and hole BL1.5S-4 collared on the Belen HW vein which returned 4.43 g/t Au and 148 g/t Ag (458 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 2.34m, including 13.22 g/t Au and 129 g/t Ag (1,054 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 0.19m. The company is currently producing from four orebodies at Bolañitos: Plateros, Lucero, San Miguel and Melladito.
  • GoGold Resources Inc., presented results from eight drill holes collared at its Los Ricos North project in Jalisco. The most significant drill intersections were encountered at El Orito area in holes LRGO-21-020 with 2.02 g/t Au, 168 g/t Ag, 0.02% Cu, 0.2% Pb, and 0.1% Zn (331 g/t AgEq) over 11.8m, including 11.63 g/t Au, 832 g/t Ag, 0.05% Cu, 0.5% Pb, and 0.2% Zn (1,729 g/t AgEq) over 1.8m; and hole LRGO-21-027 with 0.1 g/t Au, 57 g/t Ag, 0.24% Cu, 2.2% Pb, and 0.2% Zn (145 g/t AgEq) over 53.4m, including 0.06g/t Au, 150 g/t Ag, 0.47% Cu, 7.1% Pb, and 0.3% Zn (376 g/t AgEq) over 4.2m, plus another deeper interval of  0.04 g/t Au, 44 g/t Ag, 0.04% Cu, 0.4% Pb, and 0.3% Zn (72 g/t AgEq). The holes that the company has drilled to date at El Orito have shown mineralization averaging 30m in width over 700m in strike length and 200m in vertical depth from surface, and is open in all directions.
  • Orex Minerals Inc., Gold contracted SRK Consulting to conduct a Resource Estimation Study on its Coneto property in Durango. The database for Coneto includes 106 diamond drill holes totaling 38,516 metres on 12 vein targets. In addition to this study, a separate Metallurgical Study will be performed on each of the mineralized lodes.
  • Tarachi Gold Corp., completed 37 drill holes at depths ranging from 1.3 to 14.5m using an auger drill and 70cm-long Shelby sample capture tubes at its Magistral Tailings project in Durango. The drilling program was part of the resource estimate and Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) being prepared by Ausenco Engineering. The drill samples will be assayed and representative composites prepared as part of the metallurgical test work being overseen by Ausenco Engineering.
  • Silver Tiger Metals Inc., released drill results from its El Tigre project in Sonora. Hole ET-21-208A collared on the Benjamin Vein intersected 0.06 g/t Au, 382 g/t Ag, 0.17% Cu, 0.8% Pb, and 1.2% Zn (463 g/t AgEq) over 14.8m, including 0.06 g/t Au, 615 g/t Ag, 0.27% Cu, 1.2% Pb, and 1.9% Zn (735 g/t AgEq) over 8.8m, including 0.13 g/t Au, 2,451 g/t Ag, 1.12% Cu, 4.4% Pb, and 9.5% Zn ( 3,000 g/t AgEq)  over 1.3m. Hole ET 21-221 collared on the Sooy Vein intersected 4.22 g/t Au, 466 g/t Ag, 0.07% Cu, 0.2% Pb, and 0.2% Zn (799 g/t AgEq) over 1.5m, plus 0.35 g/t Au, 80 g/t Ag,  0.02% Cu, 0.2% Pb, and 0.5% Zn (129 g/t AgEq) over 0.5m, and plus 0.2 g/t Au, 197 g/t Ag, 0.07% Cu, 0.1% Pb, and 0.02% Zn (222 g/t AgEq) over 1.2m.
  • Sailfish Royalty Corp., presented an updated mineral resource estimate on its Gavilanes property in Durango. The estimated underground inferred resources using a cutoff of 100 g/t AgEq,  are 2,883,000 tonnes of 207 g/t Ag, 0.15 g/t Au, 0.12% Cu, 0.6% Pb, and 0.4% Zn to contain 27.15M Lb Zn. 18.9M Oz Ag, 13.7K Oz Au, 7.77M Lb Cu, 37.9M Lb Pb, and 27.2M Lb Zn.

ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES

  • Fabled Silver Gold Corp., announced proposed spinout of its copper assets into Fabled Copper Corp. Fabled will continue to focus on advancing its drill program on the Santa Maria silver property in Chihuahua.
  • Chesapeake Gold Corp., announced results from its annual general meeting of shareholders (Metates property, Durango).
  • Comet Resources Limited executed a binding agreement with American International Ventures Inc (AIVN) to acquire 100% interest in the La Sorpresa III tenement to extend its Santa Teresa project in Baja California. La Sorpresa is interpreted as the extension of the existence JORC resource at Santa Teresa. Comet has the right to acquire 51% through acquiring 51% of the shares of a newly established Mexican Company (NewCo) in consideration for Comet paying AIVN a total of AUD $600K to be satisfied by issuing AUD $400K in Comet shares and paying AUD $200K in cash at first completion. To obtain the remainder 49% interest, Comet will have to pay AUD $500K to be satisfied by issuing AUD $300K in Comet shares and paying AUD $200K in cash at second completion. In addition to the above, NewCo has to grant to AIVN a 1.5% NSR.
  • Xali Gold Corp., signed a new exploration and production agreement with Ingenieros Mineros, S.A. de C.V. (IMSA) on El Dorado property in Nayarit. Xali has the obligation to pay IMSA USD $30K per year until the commencement of commercial production, maximum of five years; USD $60K per year after five years or upon commencement of production. Once in production, Xali will pay a NSR of 3.5% until payments reach an aggregate amount of USD $350K of which USD $200K is payable in cash and USD $150K in Xali shares; 3% NSR to an aggregate of USD $600K; 2.5% NSR to an aggregate of USD $850K; and 1% NSR through the life of mine/operations. All annual payments are to be credited towards NSR payments.
  • Riverside Resources Inc., announced that it has recovered from Hochschild Mining the Los Cuarentas project in Sonora. Hochschild terminated the earn-in option after spending approximately USD $1.2M, including a 1,500m drilling program in nine holes. Riverside believes there are still untested seven targets with discovery potential.

ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

  • Minera San Xavier (New Gold) and the Archdiocese of San Luis Potosí, announced the reopening of the temple of san Pedro Apóstol in Cerro San Pedro, San Luis Potosi. The conservation of the cultural and historical heritage of the place is one of the priorities of the Comprehensive, Inclusive and Participatory Plan for the Closure of Mina, which is why, from the beginning of the extractive activity, implemented a periodic program of topographic measurements to monitor the structural behavior of the building. All the works were coordinated with the Cerro de San Pedro City Council, the Archdiocese of San Luis Potosí and under the strict supervision of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
  • The Mining Cluster of Sonora AC announced that it will promote a comprehensive safety and work-family balance in mining. Mining is recognized for working with the highest safety standards and is even below the national average in accident rate according to data from the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) and the Mexican Mining Chamber (CAMIMEX). Mining is an industry that is always in constant training and promotes strategies to generate healthy work environments.

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, rich-silver banded quartz vein in an intermediate –sulphidation epithermal system in a project in Chihuahua, Mexico.  Photo by Miguel A Heredia.

The Mining and Exploration News in Mexico: Highlights on the Fourth Week of February, 2021.

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By Miguel A Heredia

During the fourth week of the year (February 22th to February 28th, 2021), at least 39 press releases were announced by companies working in Mexico and 7 news published by the media, with eleven announcing financial rounds, nine reporting  on resources and development of their mine operations, seven disclosing deals and corporate issues, six commenting on Mexican issues, five informing on exploration results, five discussing social issues, and three communicating production and financial results.  ON MEXICO ISSUES, Mining and Steel companies resumed activities after power outage. Mining is on alert for the possibility that the Mexican Congress approves the initiative of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to modify the Electricity Industry Law and favor Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). Los Gatos Silver announced restoration of full grid power at its Cerro Los Gatos mine in Chihuahua. According to the Fraser Institute, Chile, Peru, and Mexico have lost global appeal for mining investment. According to Fresnillo plc, half of the electricity used by the La Herradura mine in Sonora comes from clean energy. The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has remained firm in his decision not to grant new mining concessions, a measure that has been described as one of the main challenges for the sector.  ON EXPLORATION, In Sonora, Aztec Minerals and its JV partner Kootenay commenced 2021 exploration program at its Cervantes project, and SilverCrest released drill results from its Picacho project. In Nayarit, Xali delineated new drill targets at its El Dorado project. In Jalisco, GoGold released drill results from 12 holes collared at its Los Ricos North project.  ON MINING, Capstone informed that it is on track for ramp-up to 3,780 tonnes per day at its Cozamine mine in Zacatecas by end of Q1, 2021, and reported Q4 and full-year 2020 production and financial results. Gold Resource reported full year 2020 production and financial results from its Don David mine in Oaxaca. Torex announced Q4, 2020 and full year 2020 production and financial results from its Limon-Los Guajes mine complex in Guerrero.  ON FINANCING, Carlyle granted stock options to directors and consultants (Cecilia project, Sonora). Coeur announced its intention to offer USD $350M of senior notes due 2029 (Palmarejo mine, Chihuahua). Capstone closed a USD $150M silver stream agreement with Wheaton Precious Metals (Cozamine mine, Zacatecas). Discovery Metals announced that an aggregate of 31,140,000 common share purchase warrants were exercised (Cordero project, Chihuahua). Fabled announced an exercise of warrants for gross proceeds of $4,150,000 (Santa Maria property, Chihuahua). Orla completed layback agreement with Fresnillo on its Camino Rojo project in Zacatecas. Santacruz, through its subsidiary Carrizal Mining, entered into a definitive agreement with Minera Cedros, a subsidiary of Industrias Peñoles, to acquire the Zimapan mine in Hidalgo. SilverCrest completed its previously announced bought deal offering for gross proceeds of USD $138,069,000 (Las Chispas project, Sonora). Telson executed a LOI with Accendo Banco to provide financing up to USD $25M to complete the construction of its Tahuehueto mine in Durango, and also granted stock options to certain directors, officers, and insiders.  ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT, Alamos Gold reported minerals reserves and resources for the year-ended 2020 (Mulatos mine, Sonora). Aloro informed that Alamos Gold has initiated its field exploration program on its Los Venados project in Sonora. Chesapeake presented its 2021 work program at its Metates project in Durango. Excellon released results from underground expansion and exploration drilling from its Platosa property in Durango. Fabled released results from the third drill hole collared at its Santa Maria property in Chihuahua. GR Silver announced that it is conducting a ground geophysics program at its San Marcial project in Sinaloa, incorporating magnetometry and 3D IP. Orogen provided an update on its Ermitaño property in Sonora. Prime announced that a fifth core drill rig has been added at Los Reyes project, Sinaloa. Xtierra released drill results from two holes collared at the Victor Vein at its Bilbao deposit in Zacatecas.  ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES, Barksdale announced the appointment of its Corporate Secretary as well as the grant of stock options to directors, employees and consultants. Colibri signed an option agreement with Bimsa to acquire 100% interest in the Diamante gold project in Sonora. Equinox announced that shareholders and optionholders of Premier approved the acquisition (Mercedes mine, Sonora). GR Silver announced the appointment of its VP Corporate Comminications (Plomosas property, Sinaloa). Autlan announced the appointment of its CEO (Molango mine, Hidalgo). US Antimony announced that trading of its common shares at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has been halted. VanGold announced the appointment of Ramón Dávila to join to its Advisory Board (Pinguico property, Guanajuato).   ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, Fresnillo plc through its San Julian mine reinforced sanitary measures with campaign in Guadalupe and Calvo, Chihuahua. Minera Media Luna (Torex Gold) and the Universidad de Guerrero signed an environmental monitoring agreement (Limon-Guajes mine complex, Guerrero). Minera Peñasquito (Newmont) donated ventilators to the Medical Specialties Unit (UNEME) in Zacatecas. Mina Santa Elena (First Majestic) donated rapid COVID 19 antigen tests and face masks to municipalities of Baviácora, Aconchi, San Felipe de Jesús, Huépac, Banámichi, and Arizpe in Sonora.

ON MEXICO ISSUES

  • Mining and Steel companies operating in Mexico resumed activities after power outage. The companies normalized their operations after the energy deficit caused by the polar wave in Texas affected their operations. Local operations in the silver, gold, coal and iron mines were suspended or restricted after the US state halting natural gas exports amid a historic winter storm. The interruption of natural gas shipments has generated calls for Mexico to invest in gas storage and diversify its energy matrix.
  • Mining is on alert for the possibility that the Mexican Congress approves the initiative of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) to modify the Electricity Industry Law and favor Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). AMLO said that he will seek to get his proposal approved without changing a single comma. The government last week began a campaign to emphasize the alleged damage that the actions of the IP have brought to the company headed by Manuel Bartlett. Mining is one of the industries that will be affected. Simply the companies that invested in self-supply projects managed to lower the cost of the fluid from 12 or 13 cents of a kilowatt (kw) / hour to 6.5 cents. Those that depend on CFE pay between 8 and 9 cents per kw / hour, far from the level of their competitors in Peru or Chile, which are at 6 cents, let alone those in the US at 4 cents and Canada 2 cents.
  • Los Gatos Silver Inc., announced restoration of full grid power at its Cerro Los Gatos mine in Chihuahua. Given the expedited restoration of full grid power, the outage has had minimal impact on the Company’s mining and processing activities.
  • According to the Fraser Institute, Chile, Peru, and Mexico have lost global appeal for mining investment. In Mexico, concerns about the policies of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador explain the reason for his fall from 4 positions in attractiveness to invest, to place 42. In perception of its policies, it was located in a weak 61st place after descending 10 notches. “The Federal Government is hostile towards the mining industry and is not issuing new permits,” said a company president, echoing concerns the industry has recently expressed.
  • According to Fresnillo plc, half of the electricity used by the La Herradura mine in Sonora comes from clean energy such as wind and solar, with which, through its strategy of sustainability reiterates its commitment to caring for the environment. It has allowed the saving of 4,051 Mhw, which represents an estimated reduction of 2 thousand 358 tons of CO2e. The company reports that for a decade it has invested in the use of renewable energy sources in order to make its processes cleaner and, with it, to be able, in the medium term, to achieve that 75% of its electricity consumption comes from of wind energy.
  • The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), has remained firm in his decision not to grant new mining concessions, a measure that has been described as one of the main challenges for the sector.  AMLO has repeatedly said that his administration will not award new concessions, as his predecessors would have given parts of the country to mining companies too easily. While it may be difficult to obtain new concessions, mining companies can still acquire properties in the secondary market, since there are concession holders who are willing to sell if necessary.

ON EXPLORATION

  • Aztec Minerals Corp.,  and its JV partner Kootenay Silver Inc., commenced their 2021 exploration program at its Cervantes project in Sonora. The plan is to conduct a +500 soil samples to cover 518 hectares with 100m by 100m spaced samples aimed at extending previous soils grid and covering the Estrella and California North targets to the western, northern, and eastern limits of the property. Detailed lithologic, alteration, structural mapping and rock chip sampling will proceed along with the soil sampling program.
  • SilverCrest Metals Inc., released drill results from its Picacho project in Sonora. The best intercepts from initial drilling include hole PI-20-006 with 40.49 g/t Au, and 260 g/t Ag (3,297 g/t AgEq) over a true width (TW) of 7.25m; and hole PI-20-001 with 8.5 g/t Au and 51 g/t Ag (689 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 16.4m. To date, 42 drill holes have been collared at the Picachos property, with 21 intercepting an average of 4.1m with grades of 8.14 g/t Au and 50 g/t Ag (660 g/t AgEq).
  • Xali Gold Corp., delineated new drill targets at its El Dorado project in Nayarit, through the development of a new 3D geological model. The 3D model visualized high grade mineralization occurring in multiple parallel veins. Drill permits are in progress and are expected to take 3-4 months to get them approved.  Drilling is planned to test potential lateral extensions to the high grade zone.
  • GoGold Resources Inc., released drill results from 12 holes collared at its Los Ricos North project. Significant drill intercepts were encountered in hole LRGF-20-025 (Salomon area) with 0.26 g/t Au, 95 g/t Ag, (1.53 g/t AuEq or 115 g/t AgEq) over 70.5m, including 0.59 g/t Au and 251 g/t Ag (3.94 g/t AuEq or 295 g/t AgEq) over 20.1m, including 0.99 g/t Au and 404 g/t Ag (6.37 g/t AuEq or 478 g/t AgEq) over 10.1m, hole  LRGF-20-025 (Guitarrillas area) with 0.35 g/t Au and 107 g/t Ag (1.77 g/t AuEq or 133 g/t AgEq) over 18.3m, including 2.17 g/t Au and 566 g/t Ag (9.71 g/t AuEq or 728 g/t AgEq) over 2m; hole LRGF-21-033 (Salomon area) with 0.59 g/t Au and 116 g/t Ag (2.14 g/t AuEq or 160 g/t AgEq) over 33.9m, including 1.25 g/t Au and 433 g/t Ag (7.02 g/t AuEq or 527 g/t AgEq) over 3m; hole LRGF-21-033 (Guitarrillas area) with 1.94 g/t Au and 275 g/t Ag (5.6 g/t AuEq or 420 g/t AgEq) over 5.8m, including 4.14 g/t Au and 544 g/t Ag (11.39 g/t AuEq or 854 g/t AgEq) over 2.1m; and hole LRGF-21-033 (Los Chivos area) with 2 g/t Au and 486 g/t Ag (8.48 g/t AuEq or 636 g/t AgEq) over 8.8m, including 7.36 g/t Au and 1,693 g/t Ag (29.94 g/t AuEq or 2,245 g/t AgEq) over 2.3m.

ON MINING

  • Capstone Mining Corp., informed that it is on track for ramp-up to 3,780 tonnes per day at its Cozamine mine in Zacatecas by end of Q1, 2021.  During the period Q4, 2020, Capstone produced 10.3M Lb Cu at a cash cost of USD $0.63 per Lb Cu produced, and a total of 37.9M Lb in 2020 at a cash cost of USD $0.69 per Lb Cu produced.
  • Gold Resource Corporation reported full year 2020 production and financial results from its Don David mine in Oaxaca.  The company produced 20,473 Oz Au, 1.19M Oz Ag, 3.57M Lb Cu, 17.3M Lb Pb, and 44.12M Lb Zn in 2020, at a cash and AISC of USD $784 and USD $1,365 respectively per Oz AuEq, for a net income of USD $4.4M with revenue of USD $90.7M and mine gross profit of USD $12.5M.
  • Torex Gold Resources Inc., announced Q4, 2020 and full year 2020 production and financial results from its Limon-Los Guajes mine complex in Guerrero.  Torex produced in Q4, 2020, a total of 130,649 Oz Au at a cash and AISC of USD$579 and USD $886 per Oz Au produced, and sold 133,063 Oz Au for a net income USD $91.9M an adjusted EBITDA of USD $158.5M, cash flow from operations of USD $137.1M, and a free cash flow of USD $70.3M.  For the full year 2020, Torex reported a production of 430,484 Oz Au, at a cash an AISC of USD $672 and USD $924 per OZ Au produced respectively, with a sale of 437,310 Oz Au at a realized Au price of USD $1,771 per Oz, for revenue of USD $789M, a net income of USD $109M, an adjusted EBITDA of USD $431M, and an operating cash flow of USD $342M. Net cash for the year 2020 was USD $161.6M.

ON FINANCING

  • Carlyle Commodities Corp., granted stock options to directors and consultants for the purchase of 2.79M shares. The options are exercisable for a period of 5 years at an exercise price of $0.14 per share (Cecilia project, Sonora).
  • Coeur Mining Inc., announced its intention to offer USD $350M of senior notes due 2029. Net proceeds from the Offering will be used to pay the purchase price and tender premium for up to all USD $230M aggregate principal amount of its 5.875% senior notes due 2024, to pay the redemption price to redeem any of the 2024 notes that are not so tendered in the concurrent tender offer and to pay the fees and expenses in connection with the offering, the concurrent tender offer and any redemption of the 2024 notes. To the extent that the company has excess proceeds from the offering, the company intends to use such excess amounts for general corporate purposes (Palmarejo mine, Chihuahua). 
  • Capstone Mining Corp., closed a USD $150M silver stream agreement with Wheaton Precious Metals.  “All conditions to complete the Stream Agreement have been fulfilled and Capstone has received USD $150M from Wheaton for 50% of the silver productions until 10M Oz Ag have been delivered, thereafter dropping to 33% of silver production, for the life of mine from the Company’s Cozamin Mine in Zacatecas, Mexico. Wheaton will make ongoing payments equal to 10% of the spot silver price at the time of delivery for each ounce delivered to them”. 
  • Discovery Metals Corp., announced that an aggregate of 31,140,000 common share purchase warrants were exercised at a price of CAD $1.0 for gross proceeds of approximately CAD $31M. The company´s current cash balance has increased to approximately CAD $98M (Cordero project, Chihuahua)
  • Fabled Silver Gold Corp., announced an exercise of warrants for gross proceeds of $4,150,000. Following the exercise of the warrants, Fabled continues to have a total of 50,500,000 share purchase warrants outstanding that were previously issued under the financing. The Company has 185,251,903 total shares issued and outstanding as at February 19, 2021 (Santa Maria property, Chihuahua).   
  • Orla Mining Ltd., completed layback agreement with Fresnillo on its Camino Rojo project in Zacatecas. Orla will pay Fresnillo a total cash consideration of USD $62.8M through staged payments. The first payment of USD $25M was due to Fresnillo on closing of the transaction.
  • Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd., through its subsidiary Carrizal Mining SA de CV,   entered into a definitive agreement with Minera Cedros, a subsidiary of Industrias Peñoles SAB de CV, to acquire the Zimapan mine in Hidalgo and related assets, for a total consideration of USD $20M plus a VAT of USD $3.2M.  Assets to be acquired include a processing facility with a capacity of 75K dry tonnes per month, and Zn, Pb, Cu circuits; surface and underground infrastructure required for day to date operations; and 34 mining concessions totalling 5,139 hectares. Santacruz also entered into a loan facility with Trafigura México SA de CV in the amount of USD $17.6M from which USD $15M will be advanced to Peñoles on behalf of Carrizal on closing of the acquisition. The remains balance, USD $8.2M, is being financed by Minera Cedros. The USD $2.6M balance of the Trafigura loan represents the refinancing of existing debt owing to Trafigura by Carrizal and an affiliate.
  • SilverCrest Metals Inc., completed its previously announced bought deal offering for gross proceeds of USD $138,069,000. Gross proceeds will be used to expand the Las Chispas resources and reserves, through further drilling, to optimize the mine and processing plant design, to explore regional targets, and for general working capital purposes.  
  • Telson Mining Corporation executed a LOI with Accendo Banco SA de CV to provide financing up to USD $25M to complete the construction of its Tahuehueto mine in Durango. Telson also granted stock options to certain directors, officers and insiders of up to an aggregate 4.7M shares in the capital stock of the Company.  The options are exercisable on or before February 25, 2026 at a price of $0.30 per share, and the Company has also re-priced 1,873,333 stock options originally granted as to; 1,423,333 exercisable at $0.71 till November 10, 2022, 400,000 exercisable at $0.72 till April 16, 2023 and 50,000 exercisable at $0.71 till April 23, 2023.

ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Alamos Gold Inc., reported minerals reserves and resources for the year-ended 2020. Proven and probable reserves at Mulatos mine in Sonora are 33,935,000 tons of 1.24 g/t Au for a total of 1.35M Oz Au. Measured + indicated resources are 74,193.000 tonnes of 1.09 g/t Au for a total of 2.6M Oz Au, and Inferred resources are 9,291,000 tonnes of 0.91 g/t Au for a total of 271K Oz Au. Mineral reserves are exclusive of mineral resources.
  • Aloro Mining Corp., informed that Alamos Gold has initiated its field exploration program on its Los Venados project in Sonora. Focus of the program is the south portion of the property, adjacent to the Mulatos open pit.
  • Chesapeake Gold Corp., informed over its 2021 work program at its Metates project in Durango. This program will consists of approximately 2,500m drilling to recover 10 tonnes of PQ size material to conduct on 40 test columns metallurgical testwork focused on a new heap leach option, to determine the impacts of size, regent strengths, and ore types to determine the optimum oxidation and precious metal leaching parameters. In parallel, Chesapeake will update the previous PSF and add a scoping study for the sulphide heap leach to demonstrate the potential upside of this option.
  • Excellon Resources Inc., released results from underground expansion and exploration drilling from its Platosa property in Durango. Significant drill intercepts were encountered at the Rodilla, NE-1S, and Pierna Mantos with diamond drilling from underground in hole EX20UG491 at the Rodilla Area with 1,023 g/t Ag, 9.3% Pb, 4.5% Zn, and 0.1 g/t Au (1,422 g/t AgEq) over 8.9m, including 3,499 g/t Ag, 29.7% Pb, 10.3% Zn, and 0.1 g/t Au (4,623 g/t AgEq) over 2.2m; hole EX20UG493 at NE-1S Area with 673 g/t Ag, 6.7% Pb, and 7.1% Zn (1,092 g/t AgEq) over 2.4m;  hole EX20UG506 at 623 Area with 1,258 g/t Ag, 7.5% Pb, 2.4% Zn, and 0.1 g/t Au (1,258 g/t AgEq) over 1.6m; and hole EX21UG515 at Gap Area with 721 g/t Ag, 4.1% Pb, and 4.5% Zn (984 g/t AgEq) over 4m. Drilling continues to define and discover new mineralization in the gap Area with 300m of potential mineralized strike to be explored.
  • Fabled Silver Gold Corp., released results from the third drill hole collared at its Santa Maria property in Chihuahua. This third hole is part of an ongoing 8,000m drill program and intersected 85 g/t Ag and 0.49 g/t Au over 12.5m, including 214 g/t Ag and 1.08 g/t Au over 1.8m. “The 12.50 meter intersection has clearly defined a footwall and hanging wall structure with corresponding elevated silver values up to over 7 ounces of silver and remains open at depth. More importantly, the structure is very conformable and intersected exactly where predicted, which bodes very well for the expansion of Santa Maria and increasing the present NI 43-101 resources on the property with only 3 drill holes drilled to date.”
  • GR Silver Mining Ltd., announced that it is conducting a ground geophysics program at its San Marcial project in Sinaloa, incorporating magnetometry and 3D IP. The survey will initially focus on the resource area to characterize the known Ag-Pb-Zn mineralization therein, which hosts the NI 43-101 resource.
  • Orogen Royalties Inc., provided an update on its Ermitaño property in Sonora, currently under control of First Majestic Silver Corp., where Orogen holds a 2% NSR. Last January, First majestic announced a USD $42.1M investment for the development of Ermitaño project to support the construction of an underground mine infrastructure that began last year. First majestic plans to release a PEA by the end of March, and is currently conducting hydrological studies and geotechnical drilling for an upcoming PFS that is expected to be released in H2, 2021.  In addition, the company also plans to extract 30K to 60K tonnes of material for metallurgical testwork.
  • Prime Mining Corp., announced that a fifth core drill rig has been added at its Los Reyes project, Sinaloa. Prime commenced a 15,000m drill program in December 2020 and only ten has been completed to date. The plan is to complete the phase 1 drilling before onset of the rainy season in mid-August, complete a new geological resource model during the rainy season hiatus and then initiate an aggressive Phase 2 drilling program in Q4 2021.
  • Xtierra Inc., released results from two holes collared at the Victor Vein, located adjacent to and west of its Bilbao deposit in Zacatecas. Hole X6B intersected 108 g/t Ag, 0.31% Pb, 0.08% Zn, and 0.03% Cu (120 g/t AgEq) over a true width (TW) of 1.148m, and hole X7B intersected 61 g/t Ag, 5.5% Pb, 4.41% Zn, and 0.08% Cu (336 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 9.37m, including 82 g/t Ag, 6.8% Pb, 6.9% Zn, and 0.29% Cu over a TW of 0.61m, including 63 g/t Ag, 6% Pb, 6.4% Zn, and 0.08% Cu (412 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 0.36m, including 119 g/t Ag, 13.6% Pb, 11.4% Zn, and 0.01% Cu (795 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 0.70m, and including 107 g/t Ag, 8.2% Pb, 6.9% Zn, and 0.54% Cu (566 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 0.50m.

ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES

  • Barksdale Resources Corp., announced the appointment of its Corporate Secretary as well as the grant of stock options to directors, employees and consultants (San Javier project, Sonora).
  • Colibri Resources Corporation signed an option agreement with Bimsa Minera SA de CV to acquire 100% interest in the Diamante gold project in Sonora.   The Diamante property comprises two 1,057 hectares in two properties that borders El Mezquite project immediately to the west, and about 1.6km northwest of Colibri’s 1,130-ha Jackie project. To earn an initial 50%, Colibri has to pay USD $100K and incur the expense of completing 2,000m of drilling over the course up to two years, and also will be responsible for all exploration cost while preparing for such drilling program. In addition, Colibri will pay ½ of the property tax and security costs during this period.  Upon completion of its 50% earn-in, Colibri will become equal joint venture partners with Bimsa Minera and then Colibri will have an exclusive period of six months to purchase the remaining 50% of the joint venture by paying Bimsa Minera either of: i) USD $2.1M or ii) USD $1.4M and the grant of a 2% net smelter royalty (NSR) on the project.
  • Equinox Gold Corp., announced that shareholders and optionholders of Premier Gold Mines Limited approved the acquisition by Equinox Gold. “On closing of the Transaction, Premier shareholders will receive 0.1967 of an Equinox Gold share for each Premier share held, such that existing Equinox Gold and Premier shareholders will own approximately 84% and 16% of Equinox Gold, respectively, on an issued share basis. The Transaction is expected to close in March subject to certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions”.  By approving the Transaction, Premier securityholders also approved the spin-out to Equinox Gold and Premier shareholders shares of a newly created US-focused gold production and development company to be called i-80 Gold Corp. (Mercedes mine, Sonora).
  • GR Silver Mining Ltd., announced the appointment of its VP Corporate Comminications (Plomosas property, Sinaloa).   
  • Compañía Minera Autlan SAB de CV announced the appointment of its CEO (Molango mine, Hidalgo).   
  • US Antimony Corporation announced that trading of its common shares at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has been halted since before the opening of trading on Wednesday, February 17, 2021 as a consequence of selling common shares in a manner that violated Sections 301 and 713 of the Company Guide. “The violations relate to two non-underwritten transactions involving the sale of an aggregate of26,290,000 shares of common stock at a discount to the market price at the time of each transaction, with the first transaction, which closed on February 3, 2021, involving the sale of 15,300,000 shares of common stock at a purchase price of $0.70 per share, and with the second transaction, which closed on February 16, 2021, involving the sale of 10,990,000 shares of common stock at a purchase price of $1.30 per share”. The Company has been advised by NYSE Regulation that the Company’s common stock will resume trading on the NYSE American following the issuance of this press release and the filing of a Current Report on Form 8-K disclosing the receipt of the Letter, which the Company anticipates will be prior to the open of trading on Friday, February 19, 2021.
  • VanGold Mining Corp., announced the appointment of Ramón Dávila to join to its Advisory Board (Pinguico property, Guanajuato).  

ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

  • Fresnillo plc reinforced sanitary measures with campaign in Guadalupe and Calvo, Chihuahua.  Personnel from the San Julian mine delivered five thousand washable face masks through a caravan of more than 25 volunteers. The municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo has received different donations of face masks from the mining company that operates San Julian mine, adding more than 30 thousand items delivered. These surgical cloth mouth covers were manufactured by the “Yerbitas” community sewing workshop.
  • Minera Media Luna (Torex Gold) and the Universidad de Guerrero signed an environmental monitoring agreement  to encourages the inhabitants of Nuevo Balsas, Atzcala and Mezcala, communities located around the El Caracol dam and the Balsas rivers and San Juan de Cocula, to get involved in the Participatory Environmental Audit. “During the protocol ceremony, it was reported that 42 residents of Nuevo Balsas have participated in the taking of water and sediment samples, another 260 fishermen from the same town, Atzcala and Mezcala were surveyed for the evaluation of the fishing effort”. (Limon-Guajes mine complex. Guerrero).
  • Minera Peñasquito (Newmont) donated ventilators to the Medical Specialties Unit (UNEME) in Zacatecas. This UNEME has been converted into a COVID-19 Hospital for services of health, which receives people affected by SARS -Cov 2 from the State of Zacatecas, who require hospitalization and who are not beneficiaries of other social security systems. With this donation, Newmont reaffirms its commitment to Zacatecas in support of the most vulnerable population in the state and joins the efforts of health authorities in their fight against this pandemic. Newmont has delivered in Zacatecas more than MXP $28M, in hospital supplies and food packages.
  • Mina Santa Elena (First Majestic) donated rapid COVID 19 antigen tests and face masks to municipalities of Baviácora, Aconchi, San Felipe de Jesús, Huépac, Banámichi, and Arizpe in Sonora, with the aim of detecting suspicious cases and mitigating risks of contagion.

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 quartz hydrothermal breccia displaying cockade texture and a quartz vein displaying boiling texture in an intermediate sulphidation epithermal system in a prospect in Chihuahua, Mexico.  Photo by Miguel A Heredia., Mexico.

The Mining and Exploration News in Mexico: Highlights on the Third Week of December, 2020.

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Fault slickenside

By Miguel A Heredia

During the fifty one week of the year (December 14th to December 20th, 2020), at least 22 press releases were announced by companies working in Mexico and 4 news published by the media, with seven disclosing deals and corporate issues, five communicating production and financial results, four informing on exploration results, three announcing financial rounds, two discussing social issues, two reporting on resources and development of their mine operations, and two  commenting on Mexican issues.  ON MEXICO ISSUES, Great Panther restarted operations at its Topia mine in Durango, after experiencing contagious of COVID-19 among the workforce. The Chihuahua Mining Cluster appointed its new board president. The Association of Miners of Sonora (AMSAC) decided to extend the current board for one year.  ON EXPLORATION, In Baja California Norte, Comet announced that a drilling program will commence in 2021 at its Santa Teresa project. In Sonora, Silver Viper released drill results from its El Rubi project. In Chihuahua, Monarca Minerals announced its intention to conduct an initial 5,000m of drilling at its San Jose project. In Sinaloa, Vizsla released surface and underground sampling results from its Panuco project. ON MINING, GoGold presented Q3, 2020 production and financial results from its Parral Tailing operation in Chihuahua. Prime reported Q2, 2020 financial results. ON FINANCING, Silver Dollar granted stock options to its directors, officers, and consultants (La Joya property, Durango). Gatos Silver provided an update and announced inclusion in the Russell 2000 Index, as well as in the VanEck Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) (Los Gatos, Chihuahua).  ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT, Southern Silver reported drill results from its Cerro Las Minitas property in Durango. Capitan Mining released RC drill results from three holes collared at its Peñoles project in Durango. Gatos Silver commenced a 58,000m infill and extensional drilling program at its Cerro Los Gatos deposit in Chihuahua. GR reported drill results from 2 holes collared at its Plomosas property in Sinaloa. Fabled started an 8,000m drilling program at its Santa Maria project in Chihuahua. ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES, Aztec Minerals and Kootenay entered into a JV option agreement for the Cervantes project in Sonora. Defiance acquired option to purchase royalty at the Tepal property in Michoacan. Pan American appointed a new member to its board of directors (La Colorada, Zacatecas). Equinox announced friendly acquisition of Premier Gold (Mercedes Mine, Sonora). Canuc appointed a new special adviser to the company (San Javier property, Sonora). Santacruz reached an agreement with Peñoles to extend the Zimapan Mine lease until June 30, 2021.   ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, Minera Media Luna, a subsidiary of Torex Gold invested MXP $1.8M to improve the Nuevo Balsas Health Center. Grupo Mexico donated eight thousand plants in Colima.

ON MEXICO ISSUES

  • Great Panther Mining Limited, restarted operations at its Topia mine in Durango, after have experienced contagious of COVID-19 among the workforce. Mining resumed on December 17 and the plant is expected to begin processing ore on December 21.
  • The Chihuahua Mining Cluster appointed its new board president. This event was joined by the special presence of the state leadership of the Association of Mining Engineers, Metallurgists and Geologists of Mexico; the direction of the Mining Chamber of Mexico; guild suppliers, as well as the new director of mining for the state government.
  • The Association of Miners of Sonora (AMSAC) decided to extend the current board for one year as a result of the pandemic that paralyzed multiple activities in the sector.

ON EXPLORATION

  • Comet Resources Limited announced that a drilling program will commence in 2021 at its Santa Teresa project in Baja California Norte. Comet has identified sources of water for the drilling program and has improved roads to the drill sites. It is also in the process of getting the drill permit to commence the drilling in 2021. In addition, Comet has engaged a local geological consultancy to assist them with all geological programs, including permitting for drilling.
  • Silver Viper Minerals Corp., released drill results from its El Rubi project in Sonora. The most significant drill interval was encountered in hole LV20-283 with 0.72 g/t Au and 50 g/t Ag over a true width (TW) of 13.89m, including several intersection as 2.55 g/t Au and 226 g/t Ag over a TW of 0.64m, 3.26 g/t Au and 215 g/t Ag over a TW of 1.92m, 1.58 g/t Au and 108 g/t Ag over a TW of 3.84m, 4.38 g/t Au and 282 g/t Ag over a TW of 0.64m, 33.8 g/t Au and 67 g/t Ag over a TW of 1.6m, and 77.9 g/t Au and 133 g/t Ag over a TW of 1m. Silver Viper informed also that it has conducted initial bottle roll leach tests on four 500 g composites of mineralized material from El Rubi with extracting recoveries of 90-95% for Au and 62-76% for Ag. The company plans to conduct more detail test work.
  • Monarca Minerals Inc., announced its intention to conduct an initial 5,000m of drilling at its San Jose project in Chihuahua. Monarca plans to drill 10 holes to test some IP targets to depths of up to 500m. Monarca is looking to sign a surface agreement with the local Ejido as well as to apply to obtain the drilling permit.
  • Vizsla Resources Corp., released surface and underground sampling results from its Panuco project. Sampling highlights include 11.55 g/t Au and 2,091 g/t Ag (3,042 g/t AgEq) over a true width (TW) of 1m, and 6.7 g/t Au and 723 g/t Ag (1,304 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 1.2m at Agua Zarca target; 2.23 g/t Au and 264 g/t Ag (456 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 2.9 at El Batel target; 0.77 g/t Au and 315 g/t Ag (368 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 4.1m, including 1.28 g/t Au and 892 g/t Ag (958 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 1.3m at La Bomba target; and 0.67 g/t Au and 225 g/t Ag (275 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 10.5m, including 1.34 g/t Au and 371 g/t Ag (473 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 4m at Huaco target. These results will help to generate drill targets for 2021.

ON MINING

  • GoGold Resources Inc., presented Q3, 2020 production and financial results from its Parral Tailing operation in Chihuahua. The company produced 605,723 Oz AgEq at a cash and AISC of USD $11.97 and USD $14.31 per Oz AgEq respectively. GoGold reported revenue of USD $39.5M, a net income of USD $43.1M, and cash flow from operations before working capital changes of  USD $5.5M, including free cash flow from Parral of USD $6.5M.
  • Prime Mining Corp., announced Q2, 2020 financial results.   The company reported a net loss of CAD $1,656,466, cash, cash equivalent and short-term investment of CAD $7,678,959, total current liabilities of CAD $655,545, total liabilities of CAD $1,668,247, and total shareholder´s equity of CAD $19,921,788 (Los Reyes project, Sinaloa).

ON FINANCING

  • Silver Dollar Resources Inc., granted stock options to its directors, officers, and consultants to purchase up to 2.55M shares of the company. Shares are exercisable at $1.75 per share for five years (La Joya property, Durango).
  • Gatos Silver Inc., provided an update and announced inclusion in the Russell 2000 Index small capitalization stocks index, effective December 2021. Gatos recently completed an IPO with gross proceeds of USD $173M resulting in the largest precious metals IPO since 2010 and the largest precious metals equity financing during 2020. The company also announced the inclusion in the VanEck Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) (Los Gatos property, Chihuahua). 

ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Southern Silver Exploration Corp., reported drill results from Mina La Bocona target area at its Cerro Las Minitas property in Durango. Significant drill intersects were encountered at hole 20CLM-125 with 1.41 g/t Au and 36 g/t Ag (201 g/t AgEq) over a 28.5m, including 5.1 g/t Au and 72 g/t Ag (552 g/t AgEq) over 2.8m, and a deeper intersection of 0.45 g/t Au, 421 g/t Ag, 5.5% Pb, and 1.9% Zn (704 g/t AgEq or 17.9% ZnEq) over 6.1m (true width of 4.0m), including 0.64 g/t Au, 1,420 g/t Ag, 16.8% Pb, and 00.6% Zn (2,012 g/t AgEq or 51% ZnEq) over 0.9m (true width of 0.6m). This drill result is part of a 10,000m, 2020-2021 core drilling program on the Cerro Las Minitas project. Two additional holes have been completed at Mina La Bocona target. Seven holes totaling 2,470 metres have now tested the Mina La Bocona target area with assays still pending from each hole.
  • Capitan Mining Inc., released drill results from three holes collared at its Peñoles project in Durango. Significant drill intercepts were encountered in holes 20-CARC-12 with 0.63 g/t Au over 73.15m, including 0.91 g/t Au over 36.5m; hole 20-CARC-09 with 0.69 g/t Au and 21 g/t Ag over 64.01m, including 1.26 g/t Au over 13.72m; and hole 20-CARC-08 with 0.58 g/t Au over 48.77m, including 0.82 g/t Au and 16 g/t Ag over 28.96m.
  • Gatos Silver Inc., commenced a 58,000m infill and extensional drilling program at its Cerro Los Gatos deposit in Chihuahua. The program is expected to cost USD $6.1M. Drilling has already begun with a program of 27,000m with an expected cost of USD $2.8M and is focused on definition and extension of the Cerro Los Gatos deposit. Completion of the program is anticipated by June 2021. A second program focused on expanding resources throughout the Los Gatos district is planned to initiate in early 2021.
  • GR Silver Mining Ltd., reported drill results from 2 underground holes collared at its Plomosas property in Sinaloa. Hole PLI20-01 intersected 30 g/t Ag, 0.01 g/t Au, 1.3% Pb, and 2.8% Zn (254 g/t AgEq) over a true width (TW) of 16m, including 55 g/t Ag, 0.01 g/t Au, 4% Pb, and 8.3% Zn (424 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 4m; and hole PLI20-02 intersected 18 g/t Ag, 0.3 g/t Au, 1% Pb, and 1.7% Zn (130 g/t AgEq), including 107 g/t Ag, 1.7 g/t Au, 6.6% Pb, 9.6% Zn, and 0.2% Cu (778 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 4.2m. GR also reviewed and validated historical data from holes SD-62 and SD-67, confirming the presence of Au-Cu rich mineralization in other levels of the Plomosas Mine area. Hole SD-62 encountered  31 g/t Ag, 0.12 g/t Au, 0.8% Pb, 1.4% Zn, and 1.3% Cu (200 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 25.3m, while hole SD-63 intersected 115 g/t Ag, 1.04 g/t Au, 11.3% Pb, 5.4% Zn, and 0.7% Cu (800 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 6.1m.
  • Fabled Silver Gold Corp., started an 8,000m drilling program at its Santa Maria project in Chihuahua to test 11 new IP anomalies identified during the first ever geophysical survey conducted at the property. A 3-D IP survey covered the entire property at 50m-line spacing and was 16 blocks in size with penetration to -500m minimum. In addition, 27km of ground magnetic was completed over the property resulting in the creation of several products such as total field, first derivate, reduce to pole, and 3D inversion magnetics.  “Fabled’s management team strongly believes that the Santa Maria Property is an under-explored, high-grade silver-gold project with significant exploration potential to expand mineral resources and identify new discoveries”. 

ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES

  • Aztec Minerals Corp., and Kootenay Silver Inc., entered into a JV option agreement for the Cervantes project in Sonora. Aztec has already completed its earn-in and exercised its option to acquire a 65% interest in the property. Now Aztec hold 65% interest in the property while Kootenay the remaining 35%. Both parties will keep their interest at Cervantes through share ownership in Aztec Minerals JV Corporation through its wholly owned subsidiary, Minera Azteca Dorado S.A. de C.V.
  • Defiance Silver Corp., acquired option to purchase the 2.5% NSR of the Tepal property in Michoacan from Minera Tepal, over four years for a total consideration of USD $4.85M.
  • Pan American Silver Corp., appointed a new member to its board of directors (La Colorada, Zacatecas).
  • Equinox Gold Corp., announced it has entered into a definitive agreement with Premier Gold Mines Limited to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Premier. Premier will spin-out to its shareholders shares of a newly created US-focused gold production and development company to be called i-80 Gold Corp. On closing of the transaction, existing Equinox Gold and Premier shareholders will own approximately 84% and 16% of Equinox Gold, and Equinox Gold and existing shareholders of Premier will own 30% and 70% of i-80 Gold, respectively, on an issued share basis.
  • Canuc Resources Corporation appointed a new special adviser to the company (San Javier property, Sonora). 
  • Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd., reached an agreement with Minera Cedros S.A.de C.V., a subsidiary of Industrias Peñoles S.A.B. de C.V. to extend the Zimapan Mine lease from December 31, 2020 to June 30, 2021.

ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

  • Minera Media Luna, a subsidiary of Torex Gold invested MXP $1.8M to improve the Nuevo Balsas Health Center, which will serve close to four thousand inhabitants of communities such as Nuevo Balsas, San Nicolás, La Fundición, Real del Limón, Acalmantlila, Balsas Sur, San Luis and Tomixtlahuacán. This center seeks to provide decent medical care since the areas that are farthest from the municipal capitals are severely affected in their health services due to the conditions of difficult access and remoteness.
  • Grupo Mexico donated eight thousand plants to the City Council and to the  Integral Development of the Family (DIF) of Colima to reforest the public gardens of the rural communities contributing to improve the environment and quality of life of the families of the municipality of Colima.

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 fault slickenside in a Mn-Fe occurrence in a prospect in Chihuahua, Mexico.  Photo by Miguel A Heredia.

The Mining and Exploration News in Mexico: Highlights on the First Week of December, 2020.

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Quartz blade (boiling texture)

By Miguel A Heredia

During the fifty eight week of the year (November 30th to December 06th, 2020), at least 25 press releases were announced by companies working in Mexico and 7 news published by the media, with fourteen disclosing deals and corporate issues, six informing on exploration results, four discussing social issues, three reporting on resources and development of their mine operations, three commenting on Mexican issues, and two communicating production and financial results.  ON MEXICO ISSUES, Fernando Alanis, President of The Mexican Mining Chamber (CAMIMEX) declared that mining is one of the most regulated sectors that care for the environment.  There is a great hope to reactivate the economy of Naica, Chihuahua.  Newmont Corporation, operator of the Peñasquito mine in Zacatecas, reported to the Ministry of the Interior the progress of the definitive agreement to end the conflict with ejidatarios.   ON EXPLORATION, In Sonora, Tocvan and its JV partner Colibri announced the commencement of a 1,500m RC drilling program at its El Pilar project and Tarachi released drill results from its la Dura mine. In Chihuahua, Golden Minerals reported that it has completed a 3,400m drilling program in 15 drill holes at its Yoquivo project. In Sinaloa, Prismo has commenced a 500m drilling program at its Palos Verdes project. In Durango, Mithril provided an update on the drilling activities carried out at its Copalquin project.  ON MINING, Mexus announced that leaching commenced at its 250,000 tonnes leach pad at its Santa Elena mine in Sonora. Santacruz announced Q3, 2020 financial results from its Mexican operations.  ON FINANCING, no relevant information.  ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT, Capitan Mining released RC drill results from the first seven holes collared at its Peñoles project in Durango, expanding the known gold mineralization. Endeavour intersected high grade mineralization at its Bolañitos mine in Guanajuato. VanGold reported underground channel sampling results from its Pinguico mine in Guanajuato, with assays up to 1,136 g/t AgEq.  ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES, Almaden announced that the court decision upholded the original, 14,000 Ha larger concessions, which the Company originally held at its Ixtaca project in Puebla. Auxico announced the resignation of one of its directors and the appointment of a new member to its board of directors (Zamora property, Sinaloa). Barksdale announced that its common shares commenced to trade on the OTCQX best market in the USA under the symbols “BRKCF” (San Javier project, Sonora). Defiance announced that it has entered into an option agreement with Pan American Silver to acquire 100% interest in the Lucita property in Zacatecas. Fabled closed its previously announced acquisition of the Santa Maria mine in Chihuahua. Fortuna Silver provided and update on the status on a dispute royalty on one of its extracting mining concessions at its San Jose mine in Oaxaca. Magna Gold announced the change of its fiscal year-end from March 31 to December 31 (San Francisco mine, Sonora).  Orex announced management changes (Sandra-Escobar project, Durango).  Orla Mining appointed a new member to its board of directors (Camino Rojo project, Zacatecas). Prismo announced that it has entered into an option agreement to acquire the remaining 25% interest in the Palos Verdes property in Sinaloa. Silver Spruce signed a definitive agreement to acquire 50% interest in the Jackie property in Sonora. Tarachi announced the appointment of its new CFO and its Corporate Secretary (La Dura mine, Sonora). Vizsla appointed its new CFO (Panuco project, Sinaloa). ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, The Sonora Mining Cluster recognized 40 partners for their commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), during the closing of the MINNOVACIÓN 2020 Forum. Fresnillo plc donated 30,000 face masks to the Zacatecas State Government.  Newmont Peñasquito delivered pantries and cleaning kits in localities of Mazapil. The mining sector in Mexico has supported efforts to alleviate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ON MEXICO ISSUES

  • Fernando Alanis, President of The Mexican Mining Chamber (CAMIMEX) declared that mining is one of the most regulated sectors that cares for the environment. The mining sector makes strong investments to promote social development at its communities, invests in environmental issues and is one of the main producers of trees and reforestation. Mining complies with 1,077 federal, state and municipal requirements in compliance with standards, laws and regulations.
  • Economy in Naica, Chihuahua could be reactivated since there has already been a proposal acceptable by members of the Naica Ejido and the Peñoles Mining Company for the extraction of water for agricultural use, and in turn the company will start with the exploration works contemplating a possible opening of the mine. For now, the hiring of 40 people is contemplated to work in the mine, and the ejidatarios will start fallow work.
  • Newmont Corporation, operator of the Peñasquito mine in Zacatecas, reported to the Ministry of the Interior the progress of the definitive agreement to end the conflict with ejidatarios.  The company reported that 95% of the ejidatarios have received a payment for the rental of lands for exploration. It also confirmed that a permit was obtained from the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) for the drilling of a domestic water well, which will benefit Ejido Cedros.

ON EXPLORATION

  • Tocvan Ventures Corp., and its JV partner Colibri Resource Corp., announced the commencement of a 1,500m RC drilling program at its El Pilar project.  This RC drilling has been designed to confirm selected historical drilling and extend mineralization in the Main Zone along strike. It also will provide information to better define drill targets to test deeper mineralization based on geophysical results and structural interpretations.
  • Tarachi Gold Corp., released drill results from its la Dura mine in Sonora. Significant results were encountered in hole JAB-20-06 with 3.95g/t Au over 8m (from 2.25m to 10.25m),  5.05 g/t Au over 200.75m (from 22.25m to 43m), including 14.5g/t Au over 6.10m (from 27.65m to 33.75m).
  • Golden Minerals Company, reported that it has completed a 3,400m drilling program in 15 drill holes at its Yoquivo project to test the Pertenencia, San Francisco and Esperanza vein systems. Drilling results will be announced within the next few months.
  • Prismo Metals Inc., announced the commencement of a 500m drill program at its Palos Verdes property in Sinaloa. The program will consists of four to five holes, with the longest planned at 150-175m to test the vein lateral to, and below, high-grade intercepts drilled in the past. The best intercept from that program was 8.4 g/t Au and 2,336 g/t Ag, over 0.8m true width.
  • Mithril Resources Ltd., provided an update on the drilling activities carried out at its Copalquin project. Recent drill results from El Refugio target with 15-30m quartz breccia zones indicate the top of a large hydrothermal system at El Cometa project, characterized by extensive surface alteration and rhyolite dome intrusions. This alteration is observed to extend at least 1.5km west of El Refugio in addition to the widespread alteration and rhyolitic dome intrusives in the Copalquin district. The drilling at the El Refugio target now extends for over 300m with highlights including  hole CDH-022 with 1.93 g/t Au and 124 g/t Ag (3.48 g/t AuEq) over 5.05m, including 3.28 g/t Au and 140 g/t Ag (5.03 g/t AuEq) over 2.15m; hole CDH-024 with 1.59 g/t Au and 37 g/t Ag (2.05 g/t AuEq) over 15.75m, including 3.27 g/t Au and 53 g/t Ag (3.93 g/t AuEq) over 5.93m, and  14.75 g/t Au and 150 g/t Ag (16.63 g/t AuEq) over 1m; and hole CDH-025 with 0.8 g/t Au and 34 g/t Ag (1.22 g/t AuEq) over 7m, including 1.81 g/t Au and 70 g/t Ag (2.68 g/t AuEq) over 2m (within 27.55m of 0.41 g/t Au and 20 g/t Ag, or 0.66 g/t AuEq).

ON MINING

  • Mexus Gold US, announced that leaching commenced at its 250,000 tonnes leach pad at its Santa Elena mine in Sonora. Mineralized material is under way and returning values of 0.32 to 0.42 g/t Au in solution. Flows are expected to reach 0.6 g/t Au in solution by December 16th. Mexus CEO added that gold production by year end should reach 225 Oz.
  • Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd., announced Q3, 2020 production and financial results from its Mexican operations. At Zimapan mine, Hidalgo, the company processed 164,846 tonnes to produce 920,985 Oz AgEq at a cash and AISC of USD $17.45 and USD $18.54 per Oz AgEq respectively. At the Rosario project, San Luis Potosi, it processed 11,794 tonnes to produce 56,693 Oz AgEq at cash and AISC of USD $34.13 and USD $42.07 per Oz AgEq respectively. Santacruz reported revenue of USD $9.44M, gross profit of USD $1.26M, a net loss of USD $163K, and an EBITDA of USD $12K.

ON FINANCING

  • No relevant information.

ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Capitan Mining Inc., released drill results from the first seven holes collared at its Peñoles project in Durango. Significant drill intercepts were encountered in holes 20-CARC-06 with 0.34 g/t Au over 111.30m, including 0.63 g/t Au over 45.7m; hole 20-CARC-05 with 0.41 g/t Au and 21 g/t Ag over 76.2m, including 0.68 g/t Au and 28 g/t Ag over 16.8m; hole 20-CARC-03 with 0.4 g/t Au and 11 g/t Ag over 68.6m, including 0.74 g/t Au and 16 g/t Ag over 16.8m;  and hole 20-CARC-02 with 0.4 g/t Au and 26 g/t Ag over 56m, including 0.53 g/t Au over 25.9m. The drill results expand the known gold mineralization reported in the mineral resource estimate released in March, 2015 within the conceptual, open pit shell, and confirm that there is significant room to expand the existing oxide resource.
  • Endeavour Silver Corp., intersected high grade gold-silver mineralization at its Bolañitos mine in Guanajuato. Highlights include the following intersections along the Melladito vein: 12.76 g/t Au and 55 g/t Ag (1,176 g/t AgEq) over a true width (TW) of 4.5m, including  43.5 g/t Au and 171 g/t Ag (3,651 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 0.4m in hole BN-58, and 0.51 g/t Au and 491 g/t Ag (531 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 2.7m, including 1.74 g/t Au and 2,220 g/t Ag (2,359 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 0.4m in hole BN-52. At San Bernabe Vein, hole BN-59 intersected 7.91 g/t Au and 12 g/t Ag (645 g/t AgEq) over a TW of 2.7m.
  • VanGold Mining Corp. reported results from 267 underground channel samples from its Pinguico mine in Guanajuato, with assays up to 1,136 g/t Ag.  Highlights include Pinguico Shaft with 15m  strike length of grade weighted average of 733 g/t Ag and 5 g/t Au (1,136 g/t AgEq); Pinguico Norte with 47m strike length of of 256 g/t Ag and 1.7 g/t Au (394 g/t AgEq); and San Jose NW Pillar  with 25m strike length of 154 g/t Ag and 1.9 g/t Au (303 g/t AgEq).

ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES

  • Almaden Minerals Ltd.,  announced that all the mining concessions which cover its Ixtaca project in Puebla are not affected by the denial of Almaden´s appeal noted in December 01, 2020 news release. A court decision upholded the original, 14,000 Ha larger concessions, which the Company originally held, confirming that Almaden owns 100% of the property.
  • Auxico Resources Canada Inc., announced the resignation of one of its directors and the appointment of a new member to its board of directors (Zamora property, Sinaloa).
  • Barksdale Resources Corp., announced that its common shares commenced to trade on the OTCQX best market in the USA under the symbols “BRKCF” (San Javier project, Sonora).
  • Defiance Silver Corp., announced that it has entered into an option agreement with Pan American Silver Corp., to acquire 100% interest in the Lucita property in Zacatecas. With this option agreement, Defiance expands its land package on the mining district from 1,600 Ha to 4,300 Ha. The option terms include an initial payment of USD $100K upon signing; USD $100K on or before the first year anniversary; USD $500K on or before the second year anniversary; and a final payment of USD $800K on or before the third year anniversary.
  • Fabled Silver Gold Corp., closed its previously announced acquisition of the Santa Maria mine in Chihuahua. In order to acquire 100% interest in the property, Fabled has to make an initial cash payment of USD $500K in cash and 1M common share on the closing date of the transaction, USD $1.5M in cash 12 month after the acquisition closing, USD $2M in cash 24 months after the closing date, and a total of USD $480K in payments due by the vendor to the optionors under the vendor´s agreement with those optionors as follow: USD $100K on the acquisition closing, USD $120K on 2/4/2021, USD $120K on 8/4/2021, and USD $140K on 2/4/2022. Fabled will also grant the Vendor a 1% NSR with respect to the property upon exercise of the option under the option agreement and will assume from the vendor the obligations in respect of an existing 2% NSR that exists over 3 of the 5 mineral claims that comprise the property.
  • Fortuna Silver Mines Inc., provided and update on the status on a dispute royalty on one of its extracting mining concessions at its San Jose mine in Oaxaca. “In January 2020, the company received notice from the Dirección General de Minas (DGM) seeking to cancel the mining concession if the royalty (MXP $30M + VAT from the period 2011-2019) was no paid before March 15, 2020. Fortuna began legal proceedings against the DGM on February 2020. The District Court in Mexico City admitted the company’s legal proceedings on March 2, 2020 and granted a permanent stay of execution, which protects the company from the cancellation of the concession until a final non-appealable resolution is reached on the legality of DGM’s cancellation procedure. On November 27, 2020 the District Court found that the Company suffered no harm from the notice of cancellation procedure and dismissed the proceedings without deciding on the merit of the Amparo Proceedings and on the validity of the royalty. The company’s legal position with respect to the disputed royalty remains unchanged. The company intends to vigorously defend its position and appeal the Procedural Finding and file an appeal with the Collegiate Court in Mexico by the deadline of December 14, 2020.  A decision of the Collegiate Court is expected during mid-2021”.
  • Magna Gold Corp., announced the change of its fiscal year-end from March 31 to December 31 to align the fiscal year-end of the company with that of its subsidiaries, Molimentales del Noroeste, S.A. de C.V., LM Mining, S.A. de C.V. and Minera Magna, S.A. de C.V., which are required to have fiscal periods for Mexican tax purposes ending on December 31. (San Francisco mine, Sonora). 
  • Orex Minerals Inc., announced management changes. The former CEO has resigned and Ben Whiting has been appointed as President and CEO and as Director of Orex immediately (Sandra-Escobar project, Durango).
  • Orla Mining Ltd., appointed a new member to its board of directors (Camino Rojo project, Zacatecas).
  • Prismo Metals Inc., announced that it has entered into an option agreement to acquire the remaining 25% interest in the Palos Verdes property in Sinaloa. The option gives Prismo control of 100% of the concessions that makes up the property. Under the terms of the option agreement, Prismo will make a cash payment of USD $250K to the optionor an aggregate of US$250K in cash over a four-year period, with the initial payment of USD $30K made on signing. Additionally, 100K warrants will be awarded, with each warrant entitling its owner to purchase one common share of the company at an exercise price of CAD $0.35 per share for two years from the date of execution of the option agreement.
  • Silver Spruce Resources Inc., signed a definitive agreement to acquire 50% interest in the Jackie property in Sonora by making a payment to Colibri for USD $250K and CAD $25K in common shares as the first property payment within 7 days of the TSX approval. Spruce also agrees to spend USD $100K in exploration and drilling expenses with a minimum of USD $50K within 12 months of TSX approval and to pay to Colibri a second payment of USD $25k and CAD $25K in common shares also within 12 months of TSX approval. Upon completion of this terms, Spruce will hold 50% interest in the property and a JV will be formed to direct all exploration and drilling expenses. There are no underlying royalties on the property.
  • Tarachi Gold Corp., announced the appointment of its new CFO and its Corporate Secretary (La Dura mine, Sonora).
  • Vizsla Resources Corp, appointed its new CFO (Panuco project, Sinaloa).

ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

  • The Sonora Mining Cluster recognized 40 partners for their commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), during the closing of the MINNOVACIÓN 2020 Forum.
  • Fresnillo plc., donated 30,000 face mask to the Zacatecas State government to contribute to the authorities to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic in the entity. The face mask delivered to the authorities are model L03, which have five layers of protection and comply with all security protocols. This action adds to the effort and commitment that the Mexican mining company has made since the beginning of the pandemic to work hand in hand with the community.
  • Newmont Corporation (Minera Peñasquito) delivered pantries and cleaning kits in localities of Mazapil as a service to the community.
  • The mining sector in Mexico has supported efforts to alleviate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The mining industry in the state of Zacatecas has joined the efforts in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and through different companies, such as Newmont, Fresnillo plc, Grupo Mexico, and Orla Mining, has supported many communities with the donation of medical equipment and ventilators. In total, 90,692 N95 masks have been delivered , 164 thousand 452 googles, more than one million 221 thousand masks, as well as 513 thousand 378 isolation gowns and 12 thousand 522 masks, according to the Mexican Chamber of Mexico (CAMIMEX).

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, quartz blade (boiling texture) in a low sulphidation epithermal vein system in a prospect in Durango, Mexico.  Photo by Miguel A Heredia.

The Mining and Exploration News in Mexico: Highlights on the Third Week of November, 2020.

/ gambusinoprospectormexico / Leave a comment
Barite crystals

By Miguel A Heredia

During the forty eight week of the year (November 16th to November 22th, 2020), at least 29 press releases were announced by companies working in Mexico and 1 news published by the media, with eight reporting on resources and development of their mine operations, six disclosing deals and corporate issues, six informing on exploration results, four commenting on Mexican issues, three  communicating production and financial results, two announcing financial rounds, and one discussing social issues.  ON MEXICO ISSUES, Equinox announced that the community blockade at its Los Filos mine in Guerrero has been lifted and access to the mine has been restored. First Majestic announced its intention to appeal the Circuit Court decision to nullify the Advance Pricing Agreement concluded in 2012 between Primero Empresa Minera and the Mexican tax authority, Servicio de Administracion Tributaria (SAT). Deputies of the mining commission of the State Congress and the State Secretariat of Economy of Sonora will join forces to request to the Federal Government that the Mining Fund returns to the Municipalities of the State.   Great Panther has temporarily suspended the operations at its Topia mine in Durango due to the detection of COVID-19 among the workforce.  ON EXPLORATION, In Sonora, Canuc started a drone supported, high frequency, magnetic survey over its newly acquired claims at its San Javier project, Silver Tiger reported drill results from its El Tigre project, Colibri released results from the trenching sampling carried out at its Evelyn project, and Riverside and its JV partner Carlyle reported channel sampling results from its Cecilia project. In Jalisco, GoGold released drilling results from El favor target at its los Ricos North project. In the State of Mexico, Impact has commenced a trenching sampling at its Manto America gold target.  ON MINING, Excellon reported Q3, 2020 production and financial results from its Platosa mine in Durango.  Santacruz reported October 2020 production results from its Zimapan and Rosario mines in Hidalgo and San Luis Potosi respectively. Starcore reported Q2, 2020/2021 production results from its San Martin mine in Queretaro.  ON FINANCING, Magna Gold closed the acquisition of the Margarita Silver project in Chihuahua. Telson executed a Trust Agreement with Trafigura Mexico (Tahuehueto project, Durango).  ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT, Azucar resumed drilling at its El Cobre property in Veracruz.  Endeavour expanded its land position at its Terronera property in Jalisco. Elemental Royalties presented Q3, 2020 results from its Mercedes mine in Sonora. Mexus provided an update on its new heap leach pad at its Santa Elena mine in Sonora. Golden Minerals received the final environmental permit for its Rodeo property in Durango. Minera Alamos announced an independent NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate of 630K Oz Au at its Cerro de Oro project in Zacatecas. Sierra Metals announced a significant increase of its mineral resource estimate at its Cusi mine in Chihuahua. SilverCrest announced new high-grade discovery at the Babi Vista Splay Vein within its Las Chispas project in Sonora. ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES, Aura announced a new and improved offtake agreement with Trafigura starting in 2022 (Aranzazu property, Zacatecas). Barksdale appointed its company Senior VP Project Development (San Javier project, Sonora).  Comet changed its provider for shareholder registry services from Advanced Share Registry Services to Automic Pty Ltd (Santa Teresa property, Baja California).  SilverCrest announced the appointment of a new member for its Board of Directors (Las Chispas project, Sonora). Starcore presented results from its annual general meeting of shareholders (San Martin mine, Queretaro).  Silver Dollar announced it has hired a Country Manager for its la Joya Silver project in Durango.   ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, Torex achieved 10M hours work without a lost time injury (El Limon-Guajes mine complex, Guerrero).

ON MEXICO ISSUES

  • Equinox Gold Corp., announced that the community blockade at its Los Filos mine in Guerrero has been lifted and access to the mine has been restored. Los Filos has commenced a staged restart and workers will resume their duties only after testing negative for COVID-19.
  • First Majestic Silver Corp., announced its intention to appeal the Circuit Court decision to nullify the Advance Pricing Agreement concluded in 2012 between Primero Empresa Minera SA de CV (PEM) and the Mexican tax authority, Servicio de Administracion Tributaria (SAT).   “The Federal Court’s decision directs SAT to re-examine the evidence and basis for the issuance of the APA with retroactive effect, for the following key reasons: (i) SAT’s errors in analyzing PEM’s request for the APA and the evidence provided in support of the request; and (ii) SAT’s failure to request from PEM certain additional information before issuing the APA. The Company’s legal advisors having now reviewed the written reasons continue to be of the view that the Federal Court’s decision is flawed both due to procedural irregularities and failure to address the relevant evidence and legal authorities. The Company intends to appeal the decision to the Circuit Courts by the December 1, 2020 deadline”.
  • Deputies of the mining commission of the State Congress and the State Secretariat of Economy will join forces to request to the Federal Government that the Mining Fund returns to the Municipalities of the Sonora State. The commission reported that the Federal Government has pending the contribution of MXP $1,500M corresponding to fiscal year 2019 to be exercised in fiscal year 2020 in works of high social impact in municipalities with mining activities. One of the deputies stated that the resources of the Mining Fund originated in the State of Sonora, must remain here, because it is a resource of Sonora and must be applied, definitely, to the needs of the State. Sonora ranks first in the country in the extraction of copper, gold, molybdenum, wollastonite, and graphite and second in silver, substances that are exploited by national and foreign companies with investments around the world.
  • Great Panther Mining Limited has temporarily suspended the operations at its Topia mine in Durango due to the detection of COVID-19 among the workforce.   A reduced workforce will remain on site to maintain essential activities for the duration of the voluntary suspension. The health and safety of employees, contractors, and host communities remains a priority.  The company will continue working closely with the local government and regional health authorities to ensure a safe restart of normal operations.

ON EXPLORATION

  • Canuc Resources Corporation, started a drone supported, high frequency, magnetic survey over the 800m in length and 80 m in width silver-bearing magnetite swarms that have been identified within, and proximal to the large silver-bearing breccia structures uncovered in July and August of this year and first reported in a press release dated September 22nd.   
  • Silver Tiger Metals Inc., reported drill results from its El Tigre project in Sonora, where the company is currently exploring with core drilling the Caleigh and Protectora Veins. The company has drilled ten holes and highlights include hole 163 on Protectora Vein with 1,782 g/t Ag and 3.56 g/t Au (2,049 g/t AgEq) over 0.5m, and a second intercept of 1,374 g/t Ag and 0.89 g/t Au (1,441 g/t AgEq) over 0.5m; hole 164 on Protectora Vein with 805 g/t Ag and 10.5 g/t Au (1,593 g/t AgEq) over 0.5m; hole 158 on Caleigh Vein with 815 g/t Ag and 4.09 g/t Au (1,122 g/t AgEq) over 0.7m; and hole 156 on Caleigh Vein with 752 g/t Ag and 7.09 g/t Au (1,284 g/t AgEq) over 0.3m.
  • Colibri Resource Corporation, released results from the trenching sampling carried out at its Evelyn project in Sonora.  Fifty six chip samples from 0.30 to 2.00m in length were taken from trenches at The Cerro Rojo, El Sahuaro, and the West Evelyn targets. Nine samples returned values greater than 1 g/t Au and a total of 16 samples returned values greater than 0.1 g/t Au, with a peak of 23.2 g/t Au at the Cerro Rojo target area. The trenching has defined a northwest-southeast mineralized trend over an approximate strike length of 35 metres with samples ranging from 0.304 g/t Au to 27.5 g/t Au.
  • Riverside Resources Inc and its JV partner Carlyle Commodities Corp., reported channel sampling results from its Cecilia project. Thirty six channel samples were collected from underground working as well as at surface over the San Jose target from brecciated and silicified rhyolite. Over 43% of the samples returned more than 0.2 g/t Au with a peak of 48.3 g/t Au over a width of 0.75m. Other significant results were 0.86 g/t Au over 1.7m; 0.78 g/t Au over  0.85m; 0.66 g/t Au over 1.6m; 0.66 g/t Au over 0.8m; and 0.56 g/t Au over 1.25m.
  • GoGold Resources Inc., released drilling results from El Favor target at its los Ricos North project in Jalisco. Significant drill intercepts were encountered in hole LRGF-20-005 with 0.11 g/t Au and 74 g/t Ag (1.10 g/t AuEq or 83 g/t AgEq) over 21m, including 0.23 g/t Au and 150 g/t Ag (2.23 g/t AuEq or 167 g/t AgEq) over 9.0m; hole LRGF-20-006 with 2 intercepts, one of 0.2 g/t Au and 96 g/t Ag (1.48 g/t AuEq or 111 g/t AgEq) over 12m, including 0.53 g/t Au and 271 g/t Ag (4.15 g/t AuEq or 311 g/t AgEq) over  3.4m, and 0.97 g/t Au and 113 g/t Ag (2.47 g/t AuEq or 186 g/t AgEq) over 27m, including 3.35 g/t Au and 350 g/t Ag (8.01 g/t AuEq or 601 g/t AgEq); hole LRGF-20-007 with 0.28 g/t Au and 160 g/t Ag (2.4 g/t AuEq or 180 g/t AgEq) over 11m, including 0.53 g/t Au and 291 g/t Ag (4.41 g/t AuEq or 331 g/t AgEq) over 3.5m; hole LRGF-20-008 with 0.69 g/t Au and 255 g/t Ag (4.08 g/t AuEq or 306 g/t AgEq) over 52.1m, including 0.93 g/t Au and 343 g/t Ag (5.51 g/t AuEq or 413 g/t AgEq) over 37.1m, including 5.62 g/t Au and 2,052 g/t Ag (32.98 g/t AuEq or 2,473 g/t AgEq) over 5m, including 8.47 g/t Au and 3,039 g/t Ag (49 g/t AuEq or 3,675 g/t AgEq) over 3.3m; and hole LRGF-20-009 with 2 intercepts, one of 0.43 g/t Au and 148 g/t Ag (2.41 g/t AuEq or 180 g/t AgEq) over 11.6m, including 1.22 g/t Au and 324 g/t Ag (5.55 g/t AuEq or 416 g/t AgEq) over 2.5m, and 0.32 g/t Au and 63 g/t Ag (1.15 g/t AuEq and 87 g/t AgEq) over 32.5m, including 0.64 g/t Au and 171 g/t Ag (2.93 g/t AuEq or 220 g/t AgEq) over 7m. The drilling program at El Favor target has tested 1,000m along strike of the historic El Favor vein and workings. These first nine drill holes have confirmed the wide zones of mineralization mapped and sampled on surface continue down dip for close to 600m. The company stated that the mineralization is open along strike in both directions and down dip and will aggressively advance this zone towards a mineral resource estimate.
  • Impact Silver Corp., has commenced a trenching sampling at its Manto America gold target in the State of Mexico. Thirty three rock chip samples returning more than 2 g/t Au have been collected on this target, with a peak of 19.5 g/t Au over a true width of 1.2m. Additionally, 67 soil samples taken on a 50m by 25m grid have returned an average of 250 ppb Au. The 900m trenching sampling plans to test an area of 450m by 300m over the strongest Au-in soil anomalies. Previous operators of this target excavated two trenches, the same that were sampled by Impact, returning 0.51 g/t Au over 5.6m in width  and  a length of 23.5m, and 0.3 g/t Au over 5.5m in width and a length of 17.2m.

ON MINING

  • Excellon Resources Inc., reported Q3 2020 production and financial results from its Platosa mine in Durango. The company mined 21,877 tonnes and processed 22,612 tonnes of 483 g/t Ag, 5.3% Pb, and 6.8% Zn, with metallurgical recoveries of 93%, 85% and 80.9% respectively. Excellon produced 326.9K Oz Ag, 2.23M Lb Pb, and 2.75M Lb Zn (or 524.3K Oz AgEq), and sold 310.3K Oz Ag, 2.18M Lb Pb, and 2.28M Lb Zn (or 485.8K Oz AgEq) at  a cash and AISC of USD $12.60 and USD $18.92 respectively per Oz Ag sold. The company reported revenues of USD $9.7M, gross profit of USD $2.5M, net working capital of USD $10.5M, and cash and marketable securities of USD $10.1M as at September 30, 2020.
  •  Santacruz Silver Mining Ltd., reported October 2020 production results from its Zimapan and Rosario mines in Hidalgo and San Luis Potosi respectively. At Zimapan mine in  Hidalgo, the company milled 62,543 tonnes of 81 g/t Ag, 0.8% Pb, 2.6% Zn, and 0.32% Cu to produce 114K Oz Ag, 983.3K Lb Pb, 2.45M Lb Zn, and 315.3K Lb Cu (or 363.7K Oz AgEq). At Rosario mine in San Luis Potosi, Santacruz milled 6,319 tonnes of 85 g/t Ag, 0.2 g/t Au, 0.4% Pb, and 1.5% Zn to produce 15.1K Oz Ag, 26 Oz Au, 52.9K Lb Pb, and 169.7K Lb Zn. 
  • Starcore International Mines Ltd., reported Q2, 2020/2021 production results from its San Martin mine in Queretaro. Starcore milled 56,731 tonnes of 1.6 g/t Au and 22 g/t Ag with metallurgical recoveries of 88.5% and 56.99% respectively to produce 2,867 Oz AuEq.

ON FINANCING

  • Magna Gold Corp., closed the acquisition of the Margarita Silver project in Chihuahua from Sable Resources Ltd and Exploraciones Sable S de RL de CV. Magna acquired the property by paying CAD $1.5M in cash plus an additional CAD $800K in cash representing Mexican VAT, and CAD $3.5M in common shares in the capital of Magna, being 3,219,278 Magna shares at a deemed price of CAD $1.0872 per Magna Share. Immediately following the acquisition, the Purchaser exercised the option to acquire the property by payment to the titleholders of the property of CAD $500K in cash, plus an additional $368K in cash representing Mexican VAT; and CAD $1.8M in Magna Shares, being 1,655,629 Magna Shares at the Issue Price. In addition, Magna will pay Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd  a 2% NSR on all products mined and produced from the Property.
  • Telson Mining Corporation executed a Trust Agreement with Trafigura Mexico. Under the terms, Trafigura waived all defaults plus deferred all principal and interest payments until June30, 2021, under certain terms and conditions, related to certain loan agreements entered into between the parties in late 2017.  Additionally, Telson agreed to place its assets into the Trust to guarantee full repayment of all outstanding financial obligations under the loan agreements with Trafigura. Telson has advanced its Tahuehueto construction plans and currently calculates a construction budget at approximately USD $13M, including a 15% contingency. Telson is contemplating to enter into a USD $12M medium term loan facility with Accendo Banco S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple,  the possibility of a small silver stream metal purchase funding or conducting a private placement financing to supplement the Accendo loan for Tahuehueto construction, and to provide working capital.

ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Azucar Minerals Ltd., resumed drilling at its El Cobre property in Veracruz. The company is  first deepening hole EC-20-108, which is located at the Primo Zone, in an effort to further delineate resource potential at the project beyond that contained in the initial Norte Zone mineral resource estimate. The Primo Target was discovered in 2019 based on the hole EC-19-086 which intersected 0.4 g/t Au and 0.24% Cu over 200m, including 0.94 g/t Au and 0.56% Cu over 55.6m.
  • Endeavour Silver Corp., expanded its land position at its Terronera property in Jalisco to 20,128 hectares by acquiring two adjacent groups of mineral concessions called La Sanguijuela and Cerro Gordo. La Sanguijuela, which covers the possible NW extension of the Terronera Vein and the possible west extension of the Los Reyes Vein, comprises 2,759 hectares and Endeavour has an option to purchase it by USD $550K in a four years staged payments. The Los Cuates Vein is the main structure at la Sanguijuela and has been traced for over a length of 1.5km with thickness of 2 to 6m with values of 0.5 – 5 g/t Au and 50-300 g/t Ag. Cerro Gordo, which covers the possible southeast extension of four Terronera footwall veins (Pena Gorda-Canoas, Los Venados-La Carbonera, Pena Blanca-El Alacran and El Mirador-Los Tablones) as well as three other veins (El Maguey-El Madrono, Monte Obscuro-Musgos and La Muda-Monte Grande), was acquired by staking 2,200 hectares. The El Maguey-El Madrono vein has been observed over a length of 1.6 km with a thickness of 2 to 4 m, carrying values of 0.6 to 2 g/t Au and 10-30 g/t Ag.  The Pena Gorda-Canoas vein outcrops over a length of 1.7 km with a thickness of 2 to 5 m, returning values up to 0.5 g/t Au and 40 g/t Ag. Vein systems in these two properties have never been drilled and Endeavour plans to test some portion during Q4, 2020.
  • Elemental Royalties Corp., presented Q3, 2020 results from its Mercedes mine in Sonora. The company announced that Mercedes mine was placed on care and maintenance following a decree from the Mexican Federal Government on March 30. 2020 in which listed mining operations as non-essential industry, and restarted activities on July, 2020 following a two-month suspension. Mining activities were focused with a reduce staff on higher grades and are concentrated on the Diluvio-Lupita-San Martin system while also implementing continued exploration, underground development and mill maintenance programs with the intention of returning to full production in due course.
  • Mexus Gold US provided an update on its new heap leach pad at its Santa Elena mine in Sonora. It has completed phase 1 of its new 250K tonnes pad which is expandable to 1M tonnes, and will have crush mineralized material averaging 2.7 g/t Au. Mexus is looking for a return of 0.6 g/t Au in solution. In addition, Mexus is scheduled to begin blasthole drilling to expand its open pit 2 by approximately 1,741 Oz Au at a grade of 2.7 g/t Au.
  • Golden Minerals Company received the final environmental permit for its Rodeo gold-silver property in Durango, which is scheduled to begin gold production in January 2021, delivering mineralized material at its Velardeña mill to process it immediately.   “The Velardeña plant is a typical agitated leach plant rated to handle up to 450 tonnes per day of throughput from Rodeo. It is equipped with a Merrill Crowe circuit and a modern doré refinery, and the attached tailings facility was recently expanded and is expected to be sufficient for the tailings produced from Rodeo’s operations”.
  • Minera Alamos Inc., announced an independent NI43-101 compliant inferred mineral resource estimate of 630K Oz Au at its Cerro de Oro project in Zacatecas. The inferred mineral resource was prepared using an economic pit shell at a gold price of USD $1,450 per Oz and contains 630K Oz of oxide gold mineralization from 48M tonnes of 0.41 g/t Au.  Minera Alamos has also identified a number of high priority targets with potential to expand resources at Cerro de Oro, as well as a limited number of diamond drill holes which have demonstrated the potential for sulphide mineralization to extend to depth below the current estimate area.
  • Sierra Metals Inc., announced a significant increase of its mineral resource estimate at its Cusi mine in Chihuahua. The company increased 18% the measured and indicated resources from 4,557,000 tonnes to 5,356,000 tonnes, and 200% the inferred resources from 1,633,000 tonnes to 4,893,000 tonnes. The updated mineral resource estimate include measured + indicated resources of  5,356,000 tonnes of 182 g/t Ag, 0.12 g/t Au, 0.5% Pb, and 0.6% Zn (215 g/t AgEq) for a total of 31.26M Oz Ag, 20.22K Oz Au, 58.26M Lb Pb, and 67.99M Lb Zn (37M Oz AgEq), and Inferred resources of 4,893,000 tonnes of 146 g/t Ag, 0.18 g/t Au, 0.43% Pb, and 0.69% Zn (183 g/t AgEq) for a total of 23M Oz Ag, 27.7K Oz Au, 46M Lb Pb, and 74.81M Lb Zn (28.82M Oz AgEq).
  • SilverCrest Metals Inc., announced new high-grade discovery at the Babi Vista Splay Vein within its Las Chispas project in Sonora as a result of an in-fill drilling program at the northwestern extension of the Babi Vista Vein. Twenty four holes have been collared at this target with a high grade footprint of approximately 300m along strike and average height of 175m. Weighted average results are 74.27 g/t Au and 3,437 g/t Ag (9,071 g/t AgEq) over a true width of 1.6m. The most significant drill intercept was encountered in hole BV20-201 with 555.36 g/t Au and 19,453 g/t Ag (61,105 g/t AgEq) over a true width of 2.4m. This discovery at Babi Vista Splay Vein will be included as inferred resources for the upcoming resource estimation in the ongoing PFS study.

ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES

  • Aura Minerals Inc., announced a new and improved offtake agreement with Trafigura Mexico S.A. de C.V., starting in 2022. The new agreement, in which Trafigura has agreed to purchase 100% of the copper and gold concentrate produced at Aranzazu mine in Zacatecas,  is effective as of the beginning of 2022 and continues until the end of 2024.
  • Barksdale Resources Corp., appointed its company Senior VP of project Development. Its role will be overseeing the advancement of the Company’s project portfolio, including the San Javier copper-gold project in Sonora, Mexico. In connection with this appointment, Barksdale has granted a stock option to purchase 250K common shares, exercisable at $0.68 per share over a three-year period. 
  • Comet Resources Limited, changed its provider for shareholder registry services from Advanced Share Registry Services to Automic Pty Ltd (Santa Teresa property, Baja California).
  • SilverCrest Metals Inc., announced the appointment of a new member for its board of directors (Las Chispas project, Sonora).
  • Starcore International Mines Ltd., presented results from its annual general meeting of shareholders (San Martin mine, Queretaro).  
  • Silver Dollar Resources Inc., announced it has hired a Country Manager to work alongside the company at its la Joya Silver project in Durango.

ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

  • Torex Gold Resources Inc., achieved 10M hours work without a lost time injury (El Limon-Guajes mine complex, Guerrero).

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, barite crystals from a low-intermediate sulphidation epithermal system in a prospect in Chihuahua, Mexico.  Photo by Miguel A Heredia.