Resource World Magazine

38 www.resourceworld.com A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 1 4 MINING Las Minas: back to the source by Jennifer Getsinger, PGeo, PhD Source Exploration Corp. [SOP-TSXV] is focused on gold, silver, and copper deposits in a historical mining area of Veracruz, Mexico. The Las Minas Project demonstrates potential in bulk tonnage and high-grade mineralization in a large, under-explored, gold-silver- copper skarn system associated with a granodiorite intrusive at least 10 km in diameter. Imagine a bird's-eye view from a flight path going east from Mexico City to the gulf port of Veracruz. The eagle of our vision soars past chains of active and dormant volcanoes and over the central Mexican plateau where ancient ruins were built atop extinct volcanic shields, rising from the flat altiplano at a 2,000-metre elevation covered with typical matorral (dry shrublands). Suddenly the landscape drops into rugged hills and incised valleys carved by coastal rivers. Near the headwaters of the Nautla River basin, straight northeast-trending streams and ridges attest to striking geological underpinnings – in one of these linear valleys lays the historical mining district of Las Minas. Small mining operations there produced gold, silver, and cop - per for hundreds of years until the revolution of Pancho Villa stopped many mining operations in Mexico in the early 20 th century. Twenty such mines operated at Las Minas from 1870 to 1910 with grades of 20-40 g/t gold and up to 15% copper. Las Minas was the site of the first copper plate rolling mill in Mexico in the early 1800s. Source Exploration acquired concessions (total 1,616 ha) in the Las Minas area with the intention of exploring and advancing discoveries with long-term value. So far, it has targeted two areas of historical workings as the most promising; the Santa Cruz and Eldorado zones (connected underground) near Las Minas, and the San Jose de Oro prospect, sitting at the edge of a large geophysical anomaly. Whereas the Eldorado Zone is characterized by colorful copper minerals and has run up to 5% copper in a near-surface Au-Ag-Cu skarn, the San Jose de Oro mining in the 1930s revealed sulfides with abundant magnetite. At the Santa Cruz Au-Ag epithermal vein deposit, good gold values are found in skarn with some 60% magnetite. Although other exploration companies had done preliminary mapping in the area, believed to contain some 80 million tonnes of skarn mineralization, Source Exploration was the first to drill in the historical Las Minas district. Results from widely spaced test drilling and extensive geophysical (aeromagnetic and other) studies have war - ranted further exploration, and the company is eager to continue. For instance, selected Santa Cruz results showed high grades of 15.89 g/t Au, 12.98 g/t Ag, and 2.25% Cu over 10.0 metres, including 37.26 g/t Au, 25.4 g/t Ag, and 4.05% Cu over 4.0 metres, associ- ated with magnetite skarn (hole LM-11-SC-45). Previously reported results from Eldorado revealed up to 3.05% Cu with an interval of 21.10 metres averaging 1.60% Cu (hole LM-11-ED-9). Drill hole LM-11-ED-15 yielded 0.54 g/t Au, 5.52 g/t Ag, and 0.71% Cu over 55.4 m within a larger intercept of 75.8 metres grading 0.46 g/t Au, 4.36 g/t Ag, and 0.60% Cu (press release dated January 17, 2014). President and CEO, Brian Robertson, said in an interview that it was very significant that this style of mineralization at Las Minas is similar to that of the Guerrero Gold Belt, which includes skarns like Goldcorp's Los Filos deposit (9.3 million oz) and Torex's Morelos deposit (3.9 million oz). Last year, Source Exploration sought partners and funding for the necessary in-fill drilling in order to begin to delineate a NI 43-101 compliant technical resource estimate of the ore that might be found around Las Minas. The end of 2013 saw an influx of new board members led by David Baker, and refreshing of the company's coffers such that a program of 2,800 metres of diamond drilling was able to start in February 2014. Preliminary results are expected imminently, and more drilling is to be continued into the 2014 field season at the Santa Cruz and Eldorado discovery areas in preparation for an initial resource calculation. The village of Las Minas welcomes Source Exploration's contri - butions to the school and local jobs as diamond drillers, samplers, geophysical assistants, and trail builders. Rough terrain makes the man-portable drill more useful than helicopters as six men can carry the disassembled components of the drill on footpaths, and core is brought out with horses and donkeys. Source Exploration has also acquired other prospects such as La Miquita, and plans to expand its concession area. n Brian Robertson, President and CEO, and Gil Rangel, site employee, examine gold, silver and copper skarn mineralization at El Dorado discovery, Las Minas Project, Mexico. Photo courtesy Source Exploration Corp

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