Topacio Gold Project
The 93km2 Topacio Gold Project concession contains a number of artisanal gold mine workings with the main gold showings of importance consisting of eleven generally east-northeast striking and southeast steeply dipping, one to three metre wide epithermal quartz veins, six of which were mined in the period from 1900 to 1917, producing an estimated 160,000 tonnes grading approximately 8 g/t gold and 80 g/t silver.
Modern exploration by foreign companies during the past 30 years defined consistent high grade gold mineralisation throughout the vein system. This work, comprising mapping, surface and underground mine sampling, trenching and drilling, produced some excellent gold results.
A NI 43-101 Technical Report of a Geological Evaluation for the Topacio Project was prepared on 9 November 2012 and revised on 13 March 2014. That report estimated an inferred resource at a 1.5 g/t gold cut-off, from seven of the eleven veins, of;
2,716,176 tonnes at 3.90 g/t gold containing 340,345 ounces of gold
National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) is a national instrument for the Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects within Canada and as such this estimate is a foreign estimate and is not reported in accordance with the JORC Code. A competent person has not done sufficient work to classify the foreign estimate as mineral resources in accordance with the JORC code and it is uncertain that following evaluation and/or further exploration work that the foreign estimate will be able to be reported as mineral resources in accordance with the JORC code.
The project is located in the South Atlantic Autonomous Region in southeast Nicaragua which has a hot, humid, tropical climate with a pronounced wet season (May-December) and a short dry season (January-April). Relief in the concession area is modest ranging from 80 to 500 metres above sea level and is principally rolling hills covered by cattle pastures and secondary growth tropical forest. Access is excellent with paved Highway 7 to within 3 km of the main area of drilled resources in the concession.