Exploration and Mining History

The Temoris mining district has been the site of intermittent gold and silver mining from Spanish colonial times. Most of the mining has been done in an informal fashion by local miners (gambusinos) who have focused on near-surface high grade areas.

The La Currita mine was in steady production from 1983 until 1998 and is estimated to have produced about 200,000 tons. Available production records from 1993 to 1998 show that 129,000 tons a with an averaged grade of 2.33 g/t Au and 191 g/t Ag (5.27 Aueq) were produced during this period. A non-NI43-101 compliant resource was calculated by Silver Standard Resources of an additional 109,000 tons of 2.59 g/t Au and 200 g/t Ag (5.67 g/t Au eq) in 1998 when they conducted a diamond drilling exploration program. This resource will need to be verified to bring it into compliance with NI43-101.

The San Luis mine in the San Miguel group was in production from 1958 to 1963 by the Alaska-Juneau Mining Company. The San Luis mine is a hydrothermal breccia body that that was mined to an inclined depth of 815 feet with reported
bonanza grade gold encountered as the mine was deepened. According to available historic records of the time, several blocks amounting to about 2,000 tons of 180 g/t Au material were still intact in the mine when it flooded and was
abandoned. The presence of this material will need to be verified to bring it into compliance with NI43-101.

The La Millonaria mine was reportedly worked by a French company in the 1930’s through a combination of open pit and underground workings. No production records were available to the author. The State of Chihuahua’s Direccion General de Fomento Industrial conducted a study of the waste dump at the mine and estimated that 29,700 tons of material containing an average grade of 9.7 g/t Au and 23 g/t Ag was present. The available tonnage and grade of this material will also need to be verified to bring it into compliance with NI43101.

Simons and Associates conducted exploration for various clients in the late 1970’s on the San Miguel property. Geologic mapping, soil geochemistry and shallow air-track rotary drilling was conducted that outlined an estimated 850,000 tons of heap leachable, oxidized, disseminated silver mineralization at the San Jose mine. A portion of this material was later excavated and processed in a small heap leach operation by local miners. This material will also require verification to bring it into compliance with NI43-101.

Industrias Penoles and Cyprus Minerals also conducted exploration programs on the San Miguel property in 1975 and 1988, respectively. Other than a few geologic maps, no information of the results of these programs has come available.

In 1991, Kalahari Resources drilled 29 RC holes at La Currita and in 1998 Silver Standard drilled an additional 8 core holes to develop the above mentioned non NI43-101 compliant resource. No recent exploration since 1998 is known to have
been performed on the properties.