 | 
Last: $0.12
Change: unch
Volume:
Day High: $0.12
Day Low: $0.10
|
 | |
| ||||||
| ||||||
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CUALEBetween 1804 and 1854, La Prieta and La Prietita of the Cuale VMS district were worked intermittently by the Hernandez family. In 1823, the first concession was registered. In 1854, the lawyer settling the Hernandez estate, Lic. Jesús Camarena acquired the concession and formed the "Union en Cuale Co." He expanded the Property to Banderas Bay (Puerto Vallarta). Between 1865 and 1867, Lic. Camarena built the Jesús tunnel to access a block of the La Prieta orebody 84 meters high that was mined until the Revolution of 1879, and Lic. Camarena left Mexico. The mines continued to operate until 1884, but no further development was completed. In 1884, there was an underground fire, and the lowermost workings of the La Prieta orebody were flooded. Between 1879 and 1897, production was limited to near-surface workings.Overall, between 1854 and 1897, 109 077 tons were mined from La Prieta, La Prietita and La Lumbrera (San Juan). A total of 5,538,063 ounces of silver were recovered (Ontiveros-Escobedo, 1980). The ores were treated in several small reduction plants on the Rio Cuale, and the ruins of several of these are still in existence today (Fig 3). In 1899, under the direction of Sr. Geitz, the Union en Cuale Co. was re-organized, but legal problems with other concession owners occurred, and they blew up the access tunnel in 1900. Various attempts to repair the damage failed. Between 1918 and 1922 the Esperanza Company tried to re-open the mines, but did not reach the orebody. Srs. Hoyle and Gardner, principals of the Company, were kidnapped by the Zamora criminal gang. In the 1930's Minas del Oro in the Grandeza area were discovered, and some small gambusino operations were active there. In 1930 and 1931, Mayor Douglas and Richard Hunt explored the area for a syndicate bankrolled by Kennecott, Phelps Dodge and Real del Monte. However, on their return trip they were assaulted in the town of Ameca, Jalisco and they lost all of their samples. Between 1936 and 1942, Industrias Peñoles re-opened some of the old workings in the Cuale District and drilled some short diamond drill holes to explore for the down-dip extension of La Prieta and La Prietita. The campaign was unsuccessful and they released the mining claims back to the Government. Eagle Picher de Mexico S.A. de C.V. acquired the ground in 1950. In 1958, a total of 322.4 meters in three surface diamond drill holes were drilled into or near the Socorredora orebody (Holes EP-1, 3 and 4). Specifically: (i) hole EP-1 intercepted 13.72 meters of 5.3% Zn, 0.7% Pb, 0.4 g/t Au and 7 g/t Ag, (ii) hole EP-3 was unsuccessful, and (iii) hole EP-4 intercepted 4.57 meters of 12.9% Zn, 0.5% Pb and 29 g/t Ag. Eagle Picher also drilled 845.5 meters from underground to explore for the down-dip extension of La Prieta (Holes C1 to C5). Those holes all intercepted sub-economic, disseminated pyrite and sphalerite with low silver values. Because they did not get good silver results, they abandoned the Project. In 1965, Compañia Fresnillo, S.A., under the name of Zimapan, S.A. de C.V., acquired the Cuale District (both of these companies are subsidiaries of Industrias Peñoles). They commenced exploration in 1972. Geological mapping, geophysical surveys and 11 038 meters of diamond drilling in 215 holes outlined reserves of 1 471 000 tons of ore grading 1.15 g/t Au, 169 g/t Ag, 1.27% Pb, 4.89% Zn and 0.34% copper (SGM Monograph for Jalisco). In 1981, a 20 000 ton/month mill was commissioned, and between 1981 and 1988, about 2.5 million tons of ore averaging 0.83 g/t Au, 103 g/t Ag, 1.03% Pb, 3.22% Zn and 0.23% Cu were produced from more than 18 ore lenses in the Cuale mining camp (Hall and Gomez Torres, 2000). Table 2 Historic production figures for past producing mines on the Company's concessions in the Cuale VMS District (Hall and Gomez-Torres, 2000).
BRAMADORIn the 1800's small Spanish and German operations extracted gold and silver from oxidized ores. The Company has located metal processing plants from this period at Socorro, Bramador and Valenciana ( Figs 5 to 7 ). In 1968 Compañia Azteca drilled two short diamond drill holes on the Valenciana Ore body. Between 1970 and 1972, one of Peñoles' subsidiaries drilled another two or three holes (Fernandez-Valle, 1984). In 1980, the Servicio Geologico Mexicano conducted a TURAM survey, which outlined an anomalous zone 900 meters in length on the Valenciana deposit (Bonilla-Gonzalez, 1980). The SGM recommended four drill holes and an induced polarization survey. In 1986, the joint venture between the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Metal Mining Agency of Japan (MMAJ) and Servicio Geologico Mexicano (SGM) drilled 2296.2 meters in seven core holes (MJM6 to 12) between La Concha and Bramador (Sanchez-Alvarado, 1987; Table 3). Of these holes, all but MJM11 are located on Company Property.Table 3 Significant diamond drill hole intersections from the Bramador area (Sanchez-Alvarado, 1987). These intercepts are located on the Company's Cabrel concession.
Minera Constelación, (a subsidiary of Cominco Mining and Smelting Ltd.; now Teck) completed a two or three hole program in the early 1990's. The Company does not have the location information or results of these holes. At the turn of the millennium, Cominco allowed the claims to lapse, and the Company acquired the dominant land position in the District by staking the Cabrel Property in 2004. DESMORONADOThe first recorded mining activity was between 1850 and 1910 when the Agraz-Basán mining company processed about 7 tons/day of high-grade oxide Ag-Au ores (Miranda-Gasca, 1995). Between 1967 and 1973, Zimapan produced 266,500 tons of ore grading 13.6% Zn, 2.6% Pb, 0.97% Cu, 154 g/t Ag and 1 g/t Au from an underground mine at Amaltea (Fig. 8; Miranda-Gasca 1995). Concurrent with the mining operations, an exploration drilling campaign consisting of 1938.45 metres in 37 small-diameter core holes was completed. In 1975, Ing. E. Rocha completed an initial mineral resource calculation for the San Rafael massive sulphide body based on 23 intercepts. In 1989 Zimapan re-visited Cuatro Minas with a second campaign of drilling for a total of 2884.5 metres completed in 1991. The final result of that work was the ore resource estimate in Table 4.The claims were acquired by Cominco in the 1990's, who then joint ventured the Property to Ecstall Mining Corp. Due to low metal prices and poor market conditions, Ecstall and Cominco allowed the claims to lapse. Minera Croesus acquired the entire Desmoronado District for the Company by staking the Almatea Property in 2004. Table 4 Historical resources* for San Rafael (Berrocal-Lopez. et al., 1990).
ARANJUEZSeveral historic workings and a historic metal processing plant (Fig 9) occur near the hamlet of Aranjuez. The most significant of these is the internally held América deposit. The MMAJ sampled several others workings, including El Hueso, La Concha, La Atayarita, La Atalaya and La Descubriadora. Most assay results returned values between 0.2-2 g/t Au, 87-300 g/t Ag and 3-5% Pb+Zn. In 1986, the MMAJ drilled 1370 meters in 5 vertical holes in the Aranjuez area. Of these, three are located on the Company's Almatea concession.JICA-MMAJ REGIONAL SURVEYBetween 1984 and 1987, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency and Metal Mining Agency of Japan (JICA-MMAJ, 1985 and 1986) and the SGM conducted a multi-disciplinary exploration program for volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits in western Jalisco State. The first two phases of work, completed in 1984 and 1985, included regional geologic mapping and stream sediment geochemistry, mainly of second and third order drainages. Following the regional campaign, the MMAJ selected areas in Bramador and Aranjuez for geophysical surveying and diamond drill testing. |
 |
| Home | Corporate | News | Projects | Investors | QwikReport | Contact |
