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Veta Colorada, Mexico

Location and History

Located in southern Chihuahua State in Mexico, the North Parral project presently comprises three separate properties, Veta Colorada, La Palmilla and San Patricio. These properties lie within 10 kilometers of the city of Parral. Rich silver deposits in the area have yielded in the order of 200 million ounces of silver over three centuries of intermittent mining.

Between 1975 and 1996, the Mexican mining company, IMMSA (Grupo Mexico S.A. de C.V.), conducted modern exploration work along the historically productive Veta Colorada structure. This work included underground cross-cutting and sampling as well as approximately 20,000 meters of underground and surface diamond drilling.

Geology and Metallurgy

Together the three claim blocks cover the bulk of a major system of quartz veins and fault breccias containing epithermal silver (lead-zinc-gold) mineralization that is hosted by Tertiary-age volcanic rocks. The Veta Colorada is a silicified fault breccia that follows a major eastdipping fault for more than 10 kilometers. In general, the silver deposits which have been exploited along the structure have strike lengths of about 500 meters, dip extents reaching 500 meters or more and horizontal thicknesses that range froma few meters up to maximum of 35 meters in the Sierra Plata Mine. Reported silver production from the now-abandoned mines is in the order of 78 million ounces of silver.

Underground mining at La Palmilla was done on three or four northerly striking, pinch-and-swell quartz veins, 0.3-1.5 meters thick. Individual veins are spaced tens of meters apart, with quartz veinlet stockworks locally being well developed between the larger veins. Dacite tuffs and monzonite intrusive rock are the main countryrocks. The bulk of historical silver production came from a large, subvertical quartz lode having a maximum length of 150 meters, a vertical width of about 70 meters and a maximum thickness of 30 meters. Some ore shoots contained bonanza-grade silver mineralization with high gold contents. It has been estimated that approximately 20 million ounces of silver were recovered from this rich mine.

Project Scope and Plans

We plan to compile historic data and undertake a limited diamond drill program.

For details on the reserves and resources of the Veta Colorada Project,view the current Resource Summary (312 kb pdf).