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Diablillos, Salta Province, Argentina

  • Diablillos Technical Report

Location and History

Diablillos is located 160 kilometers (99 miles) southwest of Salta on the altiplano of northern Argentina. The property is road accessible and is 275 kilometers (171 miles) south of Pirquitas. Discovered in the 1970s, the property was primarily explored from 1988 to 2001. Total expenditures by previous operators in excess of US$17 million resulted in the discovery of seven mineralized zones with the Oculto Zone, the largest, containing the reported resource. Exploration drilling completed by prior operators and Silver Standard totals 70,000 meters in over 360 rotary, reverse circulation and diamond drill holes.

Geology

The property is underlain by Late Miocene calc-alkaline volcanics and porphyry-style intrusions that overlie Ordovician to Cambrian schists and gneisses. The Oculto Zone is an epithermal system with the silver mineralization structurally controlled in the volcanics and gold mineralization controlled by the contact between the volcanics and schists.

Metallurgical test work undertaken for Barrick Gold Corporation by Lakefield Research determined that conventional milling gave average recoveries above 75% for silver and ranged from 80% to 85% for gold.

Project Scope and Plans

During 2007 and early 2008, the company constructed a 40-person camp on site and completed over 11,000 meters of diamond drilling which infilled gaps in the historical drilling and confirmed the validity of previous reverse circulation drilling campaigns. Significant results from this drilling include hole DDH- 07-30, which intersected 20.3 ounces of silver and 0.02 ounces of gold per ton over 408 feet (696.1 grams of silver and 0.852 grams of gold per tonne over 124.5 meters), and DDH-07-32, which intersected 14.46 ounces of silver and 0.02 ounces of gold per ton over 443 feet (495.9 grams of silver and 0.737 grams of gold per tonne over 135.0 meters). An updated resource estimate will be prepared along with an update of the Barrick pre-feasibility study, which indicated that Diablillos could be developed as an open pit mine producing approximately 7.0 million ounces of silver and 70,000 ounces of gold per annum.

For details on resources of the Diablillos Project, view the current Resource Summary (312 kb pdf)