• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 

Location:

The Nueva Escondida project is located in the Sierra Madre Occidental, in the central part of the Sonora State, Mexico, approximately 100km East of Hermosillo. It is easily accessible by paved road from Hermosillo and gravel roads through the property.

The property is composed of 8 claims covering a surface of 6,200 hectares, located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental gold belt (SMO). The SMO hosts over 40 M oz of gold and 2 Billion oz of silver.

Geology:

By its geological setting the property is prospective for Carbonate-Hosted Disseminated Au-Ag and Skarn Cu-Au deposits. Rock alteration and geochemistry suggest a geological setting similar to Santa Gertrudis, Peñasquito and Camino Rojo deposits.

The property is underlain by Paleozoic limestone, dolomite and calcareous conglomerate and sandstone. This sedimentary sequence is partially covered by younger (Late Cretaceous to Tertiary age) intermediate volcanic sequence composed of andesitic lava and tuff, agglomerate and dacite. In the western part, a large portion of the sediments is metasomatized at the contact with the Laramide regional granite-granodiorite intrusion. Regionally this contact hosts several gold showings including gold placers exploited by locals within the property limits. In the northeastern part, the property displays a ~0.5 – 1 km dacitic hypabyssal porphyritic intrusion in contact with the Paleozoic sediments. At the contact, the intrusion is strongly argillized and the sediments show strong signs of metasomatism defined by silicification, partial decalcification and dolomitization. Wide sectors, decametric in width, present quartz stockworks characterized by numerous irregular injections of quartz veinlets.

Historical work:

Between 2005 and 2008, exploration work conducted on the property included a rock, soil and stream sediments survey totaling 551 samples over a portion of the property. Out of 356 rock samples, some returned values of up to 13.65 g/t Au, 931 g/t Ag, 23.3% Zn and 6.24% Pb.

In 2006, a detailed and systematic rock and soil geochemical survey was carried out on the dacitic porphyry intrusion area. A 1,000 by 300 meters zone with a strong Au-Ag-Zn-Pb geochemical signature was outlined, mainly within the sediments with values grading up to 2.51 g/t Au and 767 g/t Ag. Older artisanal exploration work was done in the area, marked by few small trenches and shallow excavated holes that can still be seen today.

Work Program:

In 2010, Bowmore conducted a 45 rock samples to corroborate the historical results. Similar values were obtained, up to 3.18 g/t Au and 226 g/t Ag, also with anomalous contents of zinc and lead. The best intersection was sampled from silicified sandstone, giving 2.14 g/t Au over a width of 3.8 meters (perpendicular to the sedimentary formation). With the adding of Bowmore’s samples, the anomalous gold zone appear on surface and covers a minimum area of 710 x 960 meters open in all directions. The numerous gold showings are related to a granodiorite intrusions found in the region.

In 2010, Bowmore conducted a geophysical heliborne magnetometric and radiometric survey, covering the most of the property with 150 meters line spacing, totaling 537 km of flight lines. The survey help identify 6 underlying major structures that are presently being investigated.

Exploration work is now in progress on the property, notably with heavy minerals sampling, prospection, detailed geological mapping and surface rock sampling. The strong argillic alteration revealed by the ASTER high-resolution satellite imagery within the porphyry was recently confirmed by the mapping work as well as the silica alteration observed at the contact of the sediments with the intrusion. So far the main observation of interest is the presence of:

• decalcification/silicification alteration zones
• altered dolomitic sediments with quartz stockwork and
• mineralized breccias.