The San Antonio Gold Project is an advanced stage, gold development project located in Baja California Sur state, Mexico. Development is currently paused due to a pending environmental permit. Heliostar will earn the option to acquire a 100% interest in the project by obtaining this permit.
A 2012 preliminary economic assessment reported measured and indicated mineral resources of 1,735,000 ounces of gold and an inferred resource of 67,000 ounces of gold. 1
Drilling at the project includes 589 holes totaling 102,000 metres. Additionally, mineral concessions cover 46,328 hectares and extend over the along-strike and lateral projections of significant structural corridors.
The preliminary economic assessment outlines the San Antonio Gold Project as a medium scale, open pit mine. Processing is proposed to be conventional heap leach of crushed ore.
About San Antonio
The San Antonio project is located in the southern peninsula of the Baja California Sur state of Mexico, approximately 45 km southeast of the city of La Paz and 160 km north of Cabo San Lucas. The Project features the four known gold deposits, Los Planes, Intermediate, Las Colinas and La Colpa, and a number of exploration targets.
The land package is 46,328 hectares. Previous operators drilled 589 holes for a total of 102,000 meters of drilling.
The mineralization at San Antonio has been identified over a strike length of approximately 1.8 km and has been subdivided into four fault-bounded zones referred to from north to south as Los Planes, Intermediate, and Las Colinas; and La Colpa lies to the east of Las Colinas. Los Planes is the best known of the areas and is the most densely drilled. Drilling suggests that a northwest-trending graben basin has displaced the Los Planes deposit by 200 m, over increments of 20 to 100 m. These blocks are fault bounded and dropped en echelon down to the northeast.
The gold mineralization at San Antonio is considered to be of mesothermal or orogenic origin.
Resource Estimate
The 2012 Mineral Resource Estimate calculated:
Assumptions used in the calculation of the resource estimate included:
Economic Analysis: 1
Life of mine capital expenditures for the project were estimated in 2012 at $97.5 million, excluding reclamation (in 2012 dollars). Of the total expense, $84.3 million is initial capital and $13.2 million is sustaining capital.
Economic analysis of the project is as follows:
San Antonio Option Agreement
Heliostar entered into an Option Agreement with Argonaut and Compañía Minera Pitalla, which holds the title to the San Antonio Gold Project. Under the terms of the Option Agreement, Heliostar has the Option to earn a 100% interest in and to the San Antonio Gold Project as follows (collectively, the “Option Exercise Price”):
Three year option to successfully acquire an environmental permit (“MIA”) from Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (“SEMARNAT”) to advance the project.
If Heliostar is able to obtain the permit for San Antonio then Heliostar has a further eighteen month option to acquire a 100% interest by:
The grant of the Option to Heliostar pursuant to the Option Agreement is subject to concurrent completion of the transactions under the Purchase Agreement.
