Resource World Magazine

54 www.resourceworld.com D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 7 miNiN g SAN MARCO RESOuRCES [SMN-TSXV; SMREF-OTC] has developed a pipeline of exploration targets in Mexico. This includes their most advanced project, the Chunibas Project, as well as dozens of new targets they have developed in partnership with GlobeTrotters Resource Group Inc. through integration of unique interpreta- tion of remote sensing data. San Marco's President and CEO, Robert Willis, is not new to exploration in Mexico – as former President and later Director of Manhattan Minerals, he lead explora- tion, development and financing of what would become Mexico's Moris gold and silver mine, a 2,200 ton-per-day open pit operation. According to Willis, northern Mexico is "one of the highest mineral endowed areas (in Mexico)… This is where we think we have the best chance to make discoveries." San Marco is currently exploring in Sonora State, northern Mexico, where it acquired their El Chunibas and Mariana concessions in and around the Cuatro de Mayo District in early 2015 from Argonaut Gold. Through acquisitions, San Marco now owns or has optioned full owner- ship of approximately 93,000 hectares of prospective ground in the Sierra Madre Occidental Gold Belt. Their Chunibas gold property is located about 160 km east of Hermosillo with access via paved and gravel roads. San Marco secured surface rights here in early November and plan on drilling in 2017. Gold targets at Chunibas are a series of gold-bearing veins related to multi-phased intrusions. Five main mineralized veins form a 750-metre wide by 1.5-km long "corridor" that is open in every direc- tion. Historic drilling in 1997 advanced to a 60-metre maximum depth and indi- cated continuous gold mineralization with grades that include 1.04 g/t gold over 43 metres; and 2.80 g/t over 15 m, including 6.2 g/t over 6 m. According to Willis, "What is inter- esting in the RC (drill) holes at Chunibas is that there is mineralization from top to bottom… It's not all high-grade, but it's entirely mineralized… There are no inter- vals that show [zero grade gold]." In 2016, San Marco completed soil sam- pling on the property with grab samples returning up to 49 g/t gold and continuous chip samples returning up to 1.2 metres at 26.4 g/t gold and 1.5 m at 15.5 g/t. San Marco has also been focused on pri- oritizing new targets in the region since partnering with GlobeTrotters in May 2016. GlobeTrotters, a private company that operates mostly in Peru generating and staking projects, have developed pro- prietary filtering algorithms to process ASTER and LANDSAT satellite imagery that allows them to precisely delineate alteration. Alteration vectoring is used to target mineralization. Sonora's arid climate, good outcrop exposure and well-understood stratigra- phy make it suitable for application of this technology. GlobeTrotters have analyzed imagery for the entire state, and San Marco has a three-year exclusive on that data. San Marco integrates the remote sensing alteration data with its extensive geologi- cal database (including regional structural, stratigraphic, geochemical and geophysical data) to develop targets. Field geologists systematically ground truth those targets. They document diagnostic minerals that indicate where the target is positioned in a mineralized intrusive system (e.g. deeper porphyry Cu/Au, or higher level epither- mal) and the erosional level of that system (e.g. whether the mineralized portion has been eroded away) thereby enabling them to evaluate how prospective the target is. According to Willis, "There are hundreds of targets. This is a massive undertaking. We have spent months prioritizing them… and it will take a few years to evaluate them… We are very strict on the quality of projects we will take to later stages." In September, San Marco announced staking of the first three concessions (total- ing ~26,000 hectares) to claim target areas generated as part of this undertaking. As per their agreement, if San Marco discov- ers a project that they take to production with 100% ownership, GlobeTrotters will receive 2% Net Smelter Return (NSR). For projects with less than 100% ownership, GlobeTrotters will receive 20% of San Marco's share of proceeds up to production and 10% afterwards (and NSR will not apply). San Marco has positioned itself well for the future, as put by Willis, "In the last five to seven years the larger/ intermediate mining company's budgets for exploration have been non-existent. Their pipelines are becoming small, and there hasn't been a lot from the junior resource sector to fill the pipeline…We have really prepared our company to have a pipeline of reasonably advanced projects…We think there is an opportunity for us to create value in our company that could be of interest to other people." n the mineralized shear structure at the Chunibas project in Sonora State, northern mexico where samples have returned 5.15 g/t gold. photo courtesy San marco resources Inc. San Marco Resources exploring Mexican prospects by laura Barker

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