www.animasresources.com
Animas Resources is a North American exploration company with diversified mining interests in Mexico. Building from the historic resource base at the Santa Gertrudis deposit (within a 214 sq. mile concession), the company will strategically expand the near surface and deeper resources to the economic decision points that increase shareholder value. The company also plans to evaluate numerous targets within its 296 sq. Kilo metre Shirley concession with the intent to form joint venture opportunities.
Latest Update Shows Molybdenum at Animas’ El Tigre Prospect
July has seen a very good month for Animas Resources (TSX:ANI) in terms of newsflow, announcing this week that drilling at their El Tigre Prospect in Santa Gertrudis, Mexico has found significant molybdenum mineralisation. This comes on the back of news earlier this month that an updated NI 43-101 compliant report was filed for their Golden Arrow Project in Nevada, showing some strong resource estimates on the site, and prior to that, the company updated investors on its exploration efforts at the company’s Kinsley Mountain Project, also in Nevada.
The company is showing an appetite to keep the market updated on their progress as and when it happens, and for potential investors this can be key; knowing exactly where you stand with a company at any one time can be the difference between nice healthy value growth or a sea of red. It also brings about an opportunity, as exploration efforts continue at Animas’ various projects, that ongoing and positive newsflow may be forthcoming.
Animas Resources is a North American resource company focused on the acquisition and discovery of high quality mineral deposits, and building on the historic gold resource base at Santa Gertrudis, Mexico. The company has a market capitalisation of C$11 million, and having raised C$1.4 million in a private placement a few months ago, has around C$3.5 million available in cash and cash equivalents - funds sufficient to continue their progress for at least the next twelve months. The company’s primary assets include the flagship Santa Gertrudis Gold Project in Mexico, and more recently, the Golden Arrow and Kinsley Mountain properties in Nevada.
The Santa Gertrudis project is located in the Santa Teresa mining district, in north-eastern Sonora, Mexico, around 180 kilometres north of Hermosillo and 40 kilometres east of Magdalena de Kino. Access to the property is via a gravel road, and a network of ore haulage and exploration roads provide extensive access across the property itself. The property has had historical production and accordingly, a collection of historical exploration data is also available. Between May 1991 and October 2000, Campbell Resource's produced 564,000 ounces of gold from the property, at an average grade of 2.13 grams per tonne (g/t), and from a mine which was commissioned to start with 1.2 million ounces. Although the low gold prices eventually led to Campbell closing its operations, during the same period, the Amelia Mine (located in the Amelia deposits directly north of the then Campbell Resource's operations) produced over 1 million tonnes of resource grading 2.88g/t of gold (approx 92,600 ounces of gold).
Several historic resource estimates have been made for gold deposits within the Santa Gertrudis property, but due to the past divided land package, there has not been an all inclusive statement that considers the current Animas property. Work completed in 2004 by Sonora Gold for example, one of the more ‘recent ‘ reports, gave a measured and indicated resource of 425,000 tonnes at an average grade of 5.19g/t, totalling around 71,000 ounces of gold. Prior to this, a more inclusive resource estimate (in terms of land now controlled by Animas) reported a measured and indicated resource of over 1.4 million tonnes, at an average grade of 2.05g/t of gold (totalling around 95,000 ounces of gold). The 2000 estimate also reported an inferred resource of around 14.8 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.28g/t, totalling approximately 607,000 ounces of gold. In May 2009, Animas published the first NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate on the project on the La Cristina deposit. Considering a cut off of 0.3g/t gold, this showed an inferred resource of 152,000 ounces, with an average grade of 0.66g/t of gold.
This latest update from Animas this week does not concern gold however, but molybdenum mineralisation at the El Tigre prospect, within the Santa Gertrudis property. Animas initially targeted the El Tigre area for its gold and base metal skarn potential. This program primarily targeted the down dip, favourable sedimentary units in the area of skarn, but subsequently the anomalous geochemistry (specifically showing molybdenum, zinc, manganese and potassium) was targeted for exploration. During late 2009 and early 2010, Animas completed six diamond drill holes at El Tigre, totalling 2,678 meters, of which some of the analytical work is still pending.
This latest update shows the six drill holes, in combination with geological mapping and geochemical sampling at the El Tigre, have identified what appears to be an igneous intrusive centre with related molybdenum mineralization. Animas suggest that numerous cross cutting veins and igneous relations indicate that this is potentially a complex molybdenum system. All of the drill holes encountered strongly anomalous molybdenum, and the company note surface sampling has defined an extensive area of anomalous molybdenum in soils and rock chip samples. An extensive database for the area is currently being synthesizing, and will produce a report with recommendations outlining the next level of exploration to fully define the area's potential. Once all the relevant analyses are received, reviewed and integrated, Animas have said a report will be released documenting the significance and business alternatives open to the company in order to maximize the best value to their shareholders.
