El Grande

• District scale property covering 655 km²
• Located in Nayarit state of Mexico, approx. 250km north of Guadalajara
• Situated on the prolific Sierra Madre Occidental (“SMO”) gold-silver belt
• On trend with major precious metal mines and deposits 
• Project is under-explored and undrilled
• Excellent infrastructure: road access, power, rail service, labour, and a nearby port
• Widespread evidence of gold mineralization
• Lack of modern exploration provides a unique opportunity to be the first mover in a potential district-scale gold-silver system

Mexico:

• Mexico has a rich mining history
• Consistently ranks in the world’s top 10 producing countries for gold, silver, and copper. Other important mineral products include lead, zinc, coal, iron, and graphite
• Total value of minerals produced in Mexico in 2018 was $US13.5B⁽¹⁾ including precious, non-precious, and industrial minerals
• Ranked 4th in world for foreign direct investment in mining in 2019 at $US5.47B⁽²⁾

Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO) Gold-Silver Belt:

• 900 km long belt from Sonora to Nayarit
• Geology includes a Lower Volcanic Sequence with a very rich endowment of mineral resources
• Hosts numerous large scale precious metals mines, deposits and new discoveries

Potential for low sulphidation, narrow vein and bulk tonnage gold and silver deposits, along with intrusion hosted porphyry or IOCG mineralization

Favorable SMO Geology with variable vein structural trends; higher gold silver grades frequently occur in the low angle structures

2 areas with probable structural depressions surrounded by altered and mineralized outcrops with bulk tonnage potential; La Presa Basin and Laguna El Tule Basin

Exploration to date has focused on outcrop mapping and soil sampling in areas with shallow overburden. Over 2,800 samples were collected by the Company to prioritize areas for detailed mapping, geophysics, and drilling.

Early exploration has identified a northwesterly trending corridor, within a 40 km2 area, with extensive hydrothermal alteration. The Company has identified several interpreted vein fields that assayed for gold mineralization that strike, cumulatively, for approximately 8 kms, within this corridor. Mineralization remains open for extension in all directions.

El Grande and La Reyna’s conceptual alteration trend

Five high priority drill targets have been identified for the first phase of drilling:

1. El Polo

This target area includes a range of hills that is host to many historical shallow mine workings, including the past producing El Polo mine. The trend hosts widespread argillic (clay-sericite-pyrite) alteration that is associated with precious metals mineralization identified in numerous discontinuous outcroppings along a 3.5 km north-south trend that is up to 1.0 km wide (open).

Outcrop chip and channel samples from this trend returned a best sample of 27.12 gm/T Au and 92.0 gm/T Ag from an oxidized low angle tectonic hydrothermal breccia (the red zone) collected from the El Polo Mine. The red zone marks a contact between felsic volcanics and an underlying altered andesite. While El Polo is essentially drill ready, it continues to be prepared with detailed mapping, sampling, and ground geophysics to fine tune an initial exploratory drill program in the planning stages for the 2023 exploration year.

2. La Presa Basin

This is a topographic depression that lies north and west of the El Polo mine, initially interpreted as a circular feature from Aster satellite imagery.  This 2 km by 1.5 km area displays widespread clay (“argillic”) alteration and is considered prospective for porphyry style, intrusion hosted or epithermal mineralization. The basin is host to shallow lakes and cultivated fields with sparse outcrop exposure.

The best samples from widely spaced, low density sampling of available outcrop around the periphery returned 9.63 gm/T Au and 4 gm/T Ag, another returned 0.37 gm/T Au and 682 gm/T Ag. This target requires additional mapping, and ground and airborne geophysics to assist with drill hole planning.

3. Laguna El Tule

Laguna El Tule is a large topographic depression to the east of El Polo, the site of a shallow seasonal lake and cultivated fields, about 4.0 km by 2.0 km in circumference. Like the La Presa Basin, El Tule has a potential for bulk tonnage exploration. The surrounding area is obscured by shallow overburden with sparse outcroppings of altered and mineralized rhyolite, andesite and magnetic dacite.

Some of the better assays from this area include 6.34 gm/T Au, 4.08 gm/T Au and 2.64 gm/T Au from sparse outcrops surrounding the Laguna. This target requires additional work to advance to the drill ready stage.

4. Aguila de Oro

Named after the former Aguila de Oro Mining district, this target is host to numerous past producing artisanal mine workings and prospects along a north-easterly trend of discontinuous outcrop within a 2.4 km by 1.8 km area. Gold and silver mineralization is found in numerous exposures of veins and hydrothermal breccia and may represent a structural target (“dilational zone”) prospective for bulk tonnage targets - including veins or vein systems up to 700 metres wide (open).  

5. La Tauna

A recent discovery, La Tauna follows a northerly trending range of hills that parallels the El Polo trend and is currently mapped over 750 meters (open) from the La Tauna to Nortesur prospects. The best assay from this area returned 7.58 gm/T gold. Mapping and sampling is ongoing.

Geology Map detail of the El Grande project highlighting the five priority exploration (Gold assay results from outcrop, as identified in the legend)