During the 40^th week of the year (October 2^nd to October 8^th, 2017), at least 25 press releases were announced by companies working in Mexico, including two quarterly reports. ON MEXICO ISSUES: a blockade to Goldcorp’s Peñasquito mine entrance in Zacatecas was lifted by assembling a government sponsored round table to assess protesters arguments. ON EXPLORATION: Activity seems to be gaining pace, with ten companies presenting press releases on their properties. In Sonora, Silver Viper has commenced the first drilling campaign on its Clemente project; Aztec Minerals disclosed interesting Au-Cu values from trenches at its Cervantes project; Canuc Resources released drilling results from its San Javier property. In Chihuahua, Sierra Metals informed on thick high-grade intercepts from drill testing deep geophysical targets at its Bolivar mine; Radius Gold disclosed initial rock chip sampling from its Los Tarros property; Harvest Gold announced exploration results on the Cascaritas prospect within its Cerro Cascaron project. In Sinaloa, Santana Minerals released metallurgical results from its Cuitaboca property. In Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi Alset Minerals released lithium and potassium results from auger drilling on 13 additional salars. In Veracruz Almadex Minerals disclosed good assay results on a long interval of its last hole at El Cobre; Mexican Gold informed that the first hole of a new drill campaign at its Las Minas property intersected two mineralized intervals containing chalcopyrite and bornite. ON MINING: Telson announced that mill clean up and refurbishment is nearing completion at its Campo Morado mine in Guerrero. US Antimony is to increase production at three of its four mines in Mexico. Americas Silver produced its first lead and zinc concentrates from the San Rafael mine in Sinaloa. Alio Gold and Coeur Mining presented third quarter 2017 reports.  ON FINANCING: Southern Silver closed the final tranche of its private placement, raising $502 K; Azure Minerals is to seek shareholder approval to share consolidation. ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT: Candelaria Mining retracted the environmental permit on its Caballo Blanco project in Veracruz.  Kootenay Silver announced assay results from drilling by partner Pan American Silver on its La Negra prospect in Sonora. ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES: Magellan Resources announced that its purchase of the SDA mill in Nayarit remains on track to completion. Radius Gold signed a binding agreement with a private Mexican company on Los Tarros property in Chihuahua. Prospero Silver received authorization from the TSX on a related third party agreement.

ON MEXICO ISSUES

• Goldcorp suffered entrance blockades at Peñasquito, in Zacatecas. For a week the entrance to the Peñasquito mine in Zacatecas was blocked by protesters. The blockade was terminated by the establishment, aided by the federal government, of a round table to discuss the protesters grievances. The table is to be leaded by the Zacatecas State government.

ON EXPLORATION

• Silver Viper Minerals Corp. has mobilized a drill rig to its Clemente project in Sonora. The drill program envisages 2,000 m of diamond core drilling, focusing on the El Mundo and Nuevo Mundo areas, where Ag-Au-base metals mineralization is hosted by quartz shear veins, quartz stockworks and hematitic vein breccias. The best sample to date is from the El Mundo area is 0.5 m wide @ 1,895 g/t Ag, 4.46 g/t Au, 1.9% Pb, 1.6% Zn. The environmental permit for drilling has been approved, with land and access permit agreements in place.
• Kootenay Silver Inc. reported that Aztec Minerals Corp. disclosed attractive sampling results from trenching in the Jasper prospect at the Cervantes property in Sonora (which is under option from the former by the latter). The new manual trenching connected two previous trenches, extending Cu-Au-Mo mineralization for 92.3 m @ 0.52% Cu, 0.62 g/t Au, 76 ppm Mo, staying open in both directions. The rock is highly leached quartz feldspar porphyry with chrysocolla and neotocite as oxide copper minerals. A 50 by 50 m soil grid was completed over the Jasper project.
• Alset Minerals Corp. released results from auger sampling on 13 additional salars in Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi. “Of the 13 salars sampled, 9 had average lithium grades exceeding 200 ppm, with 4 salars averaging lithium grades of around 400 ppm and higher…”. Dry lake sediment samples were collected using a hand-held motorized auger, or a hammer and hollow-tube sampling method, and assaying the material collected between 0.5 and 1.0 m of depth. The Caliguey salar averaged 769 ppm Li and 3.4% K; the Hernandez salar averaged 556 ppm Li, 1.6% K; the Chapala salar averaged 416 ppm Li, 1.2% K.
• Almadex Minerals Ltd. disclosed assays for the last hole at the Norte area of its El Cobre property in Veracruz. Noteworthy intervals comprise 481.65 m @ 0.67 g/t Au, 0.27% Cu, including 187.25 m @ 1.02 g/t Au, 0.33% Cu (from 354.00 to 541.25 m). The hole was drilled to test for continuity of mineralization between two other holes within the area.
• Sierra Metals Inc. informed that the first four holes to test 22 high priority targets identified with the recently completed Titan 24 geophysical survey intersected wide high-grade copper bodies in three different zones with no previously known mineralization. The intercepts include 25.3 m @ 0.38 g/t Au, 31 g/t Ag, 1.55% Cu, 1.95% Zn; 28.65 m @ 0.34 g/t Au, 34 g/t Ag, 1.97% Cu, 0.91% Zn; 13.05 m @ 1.79 g/t Au, 37 g/t Ag, 2.05% Cu; 33.4 m @ 0.10 g/t Au, 32 g/t Ag, 1.04% Cu, 0.20% Zn. The four intercepts are deep seated, between 340 m and 492.90 m in the core, along length (Note of compiler.- This seems a significant discovery).
• Canuc Resources Corp. announced that the third hole at its San Javier project in Sonora intersected the Santa Rosa vein in two splays, the first with 0.37 m @ 156 g/t Ag, 0.39 g/t Au, 1.0% Pb, 5.6% Zn, and the second with 1.48 m @ 1,514 g/t Ag, 2.91 g/t Au, 4.2% Pb, 5.6% Zn. Canuc has concluded the agreement to acquire the Tule 1 concession, which envelops the property to the NE, adding considerable strike length to the Santa Rosa vein. In the NE land package is the Carranza breccia zone, with 11 m @ 274 g/t Ag on the surface, and the Cerro Colorado breccia zone, with 11.3 m @ 285 g/t Ag.
• Radius Gold Inc. has signed a binding agreement with a private Mexican company to option the 473 has Los Tarros project in Chihuahua. Several breccia bodies occur within a 3.5 km by 1 km area, with the largest breccia exceeding 250 m by 250 m. The volcanic hosted explosive breccias are cemented by silica and iron oxides. The average of 26 samples collected is 1.42 g/t Au, 66 g/t Ag. At the Rosario breccia (>150 m by 60 m) an old pit returned 10 m @ 2.95 g/t Au, 18 g/t Ag, staying open in all directions. Other significant breccia bodies include Regalito, La Bufa (the only one hosted in granodiorite), San Nicolas and San Miguel.
• Mexican Gold Corp. informed that step-out drilling at its Las Minas property in Veracruz intersected two intervals of chalcopyrite-bornite-magnetite mineralization in the first hole drilled beyond the current western limit of the El Dorado/Juan Bran zone. A 3.0 m interval contains magnetite and an estimated chalcopyrite content of up to 3% by volume. An 8.0 m interval further downhole is a mineralized exoskarn with up to an estimated 5% chalcopyrite by volume, and visible bornite and magnetite. Assays are pending on these core-length intervals.
• Santana Minerals Ltd. reported good results from initial metallurgical test work on composite samples from three drill holes from the Mojardina prospect at its Cuitaboca project in Sinaloa. A 75 micron, 48 hours, bottle-roll standard carbon in leach test on the three holes returned 93.1%, 95.3%, 98.4% silver recoveries respectively; the rougher flotation test achieved 93.6%, 88.2%, and 86.8% silver respectively.
• Harvest Gold Corp. identified six silver-rich polymetallic veins at the Cascarita prospect of its Cerro Cascaron Project in Chihuahua. High grade silver with strong Pb and Zn values were sampled in historic adits. The six veins are within a 900 m by 300 m corridor, attain up to 3.3 m in width and display colloform and drusiform quartz textures, as well as local amethyst quartz. Vein textures indicating boiling are preserved at one of the veins, as quartz pseudomorphs after bladed calcite. Results include 1.4 m @ 114 g/t Ag, 5.2% Pb, 1.3% Zn; 2.0 m @ 127 g/t Ag, 8.7% Pb, 0.5% Zn; 2.3 m @ 311 g/t Ag, 1.6% Pb, 0.3% Zn; 2.1 m @ 245 g/t Ag, 6.4% Pb, 0.5% Zn; 3.3 m @ 104 g/t Ag, 2.4% Pb, 0.5% Zn.

ON MINING

• Telson Resources Inc. announced that mill clean up and refurbishment is nearing completion at its Campo Morado mine in Guerrero. Underground mining is being ramped up, having delivered 25 K tonnes to the coarse ore patio. Ore crushing is operational, putting 5 K tonnes to the crushed ore stockpile. Commercial production at a 1,400 tonnes per day (tpd) is projected to be achieved during October, while production levels to the 2,500 tpd mill capacity is to take 6 to 12 months.
• United States Antimony Corp. plans to increase production at three of its four mines in Mexico. At Wadley, in San Luis Potosi, the gravity mill will process lower grade ore (not direct shipping ore), which could results in a 25-50% increase in production. At Soyatal in Queretaro, direct shipping ore is to be produced once new powder magazines are built. In Zacatecas a mine road to the Guadalupe mines is to be repaired, allowing mining to be resumed at the Santa Monica mine. The Los Juarez mine in Queretaro is awaiting a permit from SEMARNAT for the cyanide circuit at the Puerto Blanco mill.
• Americas Silver Corp. announced that the first lead and zinc concentrates produced from its San Rafael project at its Cosalá operation in Sinaloa were produced during the last week of September. Commercial production is expected to be reached before the end of the fourth quarter, when the Nuestra Señora mine is expected to enter in care and maintenance.
• Alio Gold Inc. released 3^rd quarter preliminary production results from its San Francisco mine in Sonora. 1.9 M tonnes of ore @ 0.40 g/t Au and 5.2 M tonnes of waste were moved (3.15 waste to ore strip ratio) to produce 19,429 Oz Au, 8,808 Oz Ag. Production guidance stays on track to produce 88 -90 K Oz Au during 2017.
• Coeur Mining Inc. disclosed third quarter 2017 production results, including figures from its Mexican operations. At Palmarejo, in Chihuahua, 413.1 K tonnes were milled @ 172 g/t Ag, 2.49 g/t Au, achieving recoveries of 83.6% Ag, 83.1% Au, to produce 1.91 M Oz Ag, 28,948 Oz Au

ON FINANCING

• Southern Silver Exploration Corp. closed the final tranche of its previously reported private placement, for gross proceeds of $502 K. The three tranches gathered total gross proceeds of $3.58 M (Cerro Las Minitas, Durango).
• Azure Minerals Ltd. is to seek shareholder approval for consolidation of the issued capital through the conversion of every twenty existing shares into one share.

ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT

• Candelaria Mining Corp. decided to retract the environmental permit for the Caballo Blanco project in Veracruz, citing the current political climate and upcoming state and federal elections. “…The postponing of the permit will allow Candelaria to optimize certain aspects of the project and improve upon existing and establish new relationships with our stakeholders. “
• Kootenay Silver Inc. announced the results of 13 infill drill holes completed by Pan American Silver Corp. on its La Negra property in Sonora. Highlighted intercepts are 34.3 m @ 159 g/t Ag (including 8.2 m @ 306 g/t Ag); 17.1 m @ 192 g/t Ag (including 3.55 m @ 597 g/t Ag); 48.7 m @ 281 g/t Ag (including 1.95 m @ 3,004 g/t Ag, 1.0 m @ 2,146 g/t Ag, 5.35 m @ 558 g/t Ag); 21.0 m @ 274 g/t Ag (including 1.1 m @ 3,018 g/t Ag); 31.8 m @ 403 g/t Ag (including 8.85 m @ 1,098 g/t Ag); 29.25 m @ 138 g/t Ag; 38.7 m @ 289 g/t Ag (including 7.6 m @ 674 g/t Ag); 76.35 m @ 236 g/t Ag; 53.8 m @ 174 g/t Ag (including 12.15 m @ 308 g/t Ag); 5.35 m @ 571 g/t Ag.

ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES

• Magellan Gold Corp. announced that its purchase of the SDA mill in Nayarit is on track to be closed by the end of October 2017.
• Radius Gold Inc. has signed a binding agreement with a private Mexican company to option the 473 has Los Tarros project in Chihuahua. Radius can earn a 100% interest in the project by making an immediate payment of US5 K, and staged payments over four years totaling US$1.68 M, of which US$1.2 M is a final payment at the end of the four year period. A 2% NSR can be bought by Radius for US$1 M for each 1%.
• Prospero Silver Corp. has received TSX approval of the option to own agreement with Exploraciones Altiplano S.A. de C.V. regarding Altiplano’s Buenavista claims in Durango. The agreement constitutes a “related party transaction” under the TSX policies.

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 below, the Peña Colorada mine pit in Colima. Photo by Jorge Cirett.