Sierra Madre Property
Golden Goliath is focused on exploring its Uruachic mining camp in the Sierra Madre Mountains in northwestern Mexico. “Uruachic is a small town founded in 1735 by Spanish explorers after discovering silver and gold,” Paul explains. “It’s a mining district and not an individual property. The overall size is about 25 by 50 kilometers and our claims, which are owned 100%, cover probably 100 old workings dating back to those days.”
Production stopped, as it did at many mines in Mexico, about the time of the Mexican Revolution. Golden Goliath was then the first company to visit Uruachic to put together its land package and apply modern exploration techniques in the area, including the first ever drilling on the property.
Ing. Daniel Nofrietta Fdz
The current focus is on the Las Bolas property, which is just one small area of the Uruachic camp. Paul says: “Mineralization here is hosted in two distinct cross cutting trends. There are steeply dipping East-West fractures and veins that are silver rich with average grades of about 434 grams per tonne with 0.98 grams of gold per tonne. That trend is intersected by another trend that’s gold dominant, which we’ve really just started to explore, but we’re very excited about it. The average grade from initial surface data surrounding the underground workings is 1.5 grams of gold per tonne. The overall structure is currently about 1300 meters long and several hundred meters wide.”
Golden Goliath has conducted preliminary explorations throughout the camp and the results so far have been impressive. Besides Las Bolas, the San Timeteo property has underground workings that have very good grades for both gold and silver.
The company has just finished a round of financing and so has $3 million in the bank to continue work on the property. “We’re carrying on the underground mapping and sampling and the surface sampling,” remarks Paul. “And then we’ll be bringing in the drills to do both surface and underground drilling on the main silver trends and the gold zone.”
Increasing the Resource
Once the drilling is complete, the aim is to update the 43-101 report that was completed in the fall of 2009, with the intent of significantly increasing the resource calculation and the target potential. A feasibility study is generally only undertaken once the resource definition reaches a certain level. However, as Paul points out, the Uruachic mining camp is surrounded by numerous past producers. In addition, and of greater significance, are the surrounding new discoveries, giving a great deal of promise and confidence for success in the Uruachic camp. He says: “Fresnillo PLC's Orisyvo deposit, just five kilometers away from Las Bolas, is generating the interest of all majors and their published resource of 2.8 million ounces of gold will only grow as aggressive exploration continues. Also, Agnico-Eagle Mines is about 45 kilometers to the North of Uruachic with their Pinos Altos project.
“Where we’re based, we’re surrounded by other deposits. Our gold grades are very similar to Orisyvo. Their published resource is based on significantly more drilling than ours which we intend to commence remedying very soon. The Uruachic camp is big enough to host more than one deposit and we know we have various types of mineralization, demonstrating multiple mineralizing events, combined with the significant number of old workings and knowing the old timers only mined high grade deposits leaving Golden Goliath the lower grade bulk material and potential for high grade pockets not found by the old timers, I believe there is more than one potential ore body to define. That’s the difference between a camp and a property.”
The very size of the Uruachic camp does present a significant challenge for a relatively small company such as Golden Goliath. So the strategy is to concentrate our own resources most effectively on select targets and let other companies in some other parts of the camp. “We’re going to try to bring in joint venture partners,” confirms Paul. “We already have one of the properties optioned out to a company called Comstock Metals and we have other groups looking at other areas of the camp so that we can focus on Las Bolas.”
A major benefit with working in Uruachic is that logistics are extremely good. Paul says: “It’s a road accessible area. You can drive a car to the town of Uruachic from Chihuahua in about five hours.
Even with a two-wheel drive pickup truck you can get to just about all the claim areas. There’s hydro power, water and a local labor force. We’re on very good terms with the local community with them expressing their hopes for the economic spinoffs from mine development. We are already the largest employer in town and support local business as much as possible. It’s really a joint effort.”
At the moment, it’s premature to discuss possible production costs. But with metallurgical work planned for the Fall, Golden Goliath should gain some valuable insight into processing techniques and costs. The signs are promising due to the excellent logistics of the area, the good grades achieved so far and the other mines being developed in the area.
Serious Backing
It all adds up to an exciting prospect for investors. Golden Goliath is an unusual junior exploration company in that it has 100% ownership of a very large property package. There is also serious backing from Agnico-Eagle Mines, which owns 8.8% of the stock and with representation on the board of directors, and Sprott Asset Management, the largest shareholder holding 14.5% of the stock.
There’s always the possibility that the company’s attractive assets could draw in a major. It’s something that Paul is well aware of: “These days, what happens is that juniors make discoveries and majors buy the juniors. That could happen to us.”
For more information:
http://www.goldengoliath.com
Corporate Office – Canada
Suite #711 675 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC
V6B-1N2, Canada
Tel: (604) 682-2950
Fax: (604) 685-3764
Email: jps@goldengoliath.com
Corporate Office – Mexico
Minera Delta S.A. de C.V.
C. Juan Felipe Orozco #516
Col. San Felipe 31240 Chihuahua, Chih.
Tel and Fax: (011 52) 614 414 6226
Ing. Daniel Nofrietta Fdz
Email: danielnosfrietta@prodigy.net.mx