Pediment Exploration Ltd
|
SYMBOL: V.PEZ Website: www.pedimentexploration.com Corporate Contact Information Phone: (604) 682-4418 Email: investor@pedimentexploration.com |
|
Company News (Jun 16, 2008) Preliminary San Antonio Resource Estimate Totals 1.45 Million Inferred Gold Ounces ...Read More
Overview
Pediment Exploration Ltd. is a mining exploration company with its head office located in Vancouver, Canada and an exploration office located in Hermosillo, Mexico. Its mission is to acquire or discover gold, copper and silver deposits applying new technology and scientific analysis to seek blind deposits and extend known mineralization to depth in promising and highly prolific areas of Mexico.
Pediment Exploration has had an exceptionally successful year of exploration in 2007 on its Baja project and made a key acquisition of a property in Mexico. The Company has reported on 39 drill holes from its 100%-owned San Antonio Project, where there has been mineralized success in all the holes to date. The grades within the intercepts have been gold bearing and Pediment has seen the project expand with all the work done.
;) |
| click to enlarge |
People
Gary Freeman
Director and President & CEO
Gary Freeman is a Vancouver based entrepreneur who has acted in financing, marketing and shareholder relations' capacities with a number of junior exploration companies. He has over 23 years of valuable experience in the industry. Mr. Freeman has also been involved with Wealth Minerals Ltd.
Melvin Herdrick
Director and VP Exploration
Mel is the Hermosillo Mexico based geologist and principal of Minera Pitalla SA de CV, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Pediment. Mr. Herdrick had a long and distinguished career with Phelps Dodge, including a long tenure as the head of exploration for Mexico. Mel formed Pitalla in order to pursue the acquisition and exploration of a number of projects in northwest Mexico. Mel's focus on northwest Mexico is based on his conviction that this region has the potential to host very large gold, silver and copper deposits that could be discovered by applying modern exploration methods that have not been widely used in the region, particularly in areas obscured by thin pediment cover.
Alberto Orozco
COO & Geologist Compañía Minera Pitalla
Alberto is the Mexico-based Chief Operations Officer of Compañía Minera Pitalla, mexican subsidiary of Pediment, and acts as a liaison between the head office in Canada and the exploration office in Mexico . A native of Hermosillo, Sonora, where Pediment has its offices, Alberto obtained his master in science degree in geology from the University of Sonora , working in conjunction with Saint Mary's University of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
His professional experience includes working for Exploraciones Peñoles in Mexico, and more recently, Linear Gold Corp, where his activities including communication and supervision of the project staff in Mexico , as well as compilation and interpretation of some geological data .
Chester F. Millar
Director
Mr. Millar is a pioneer of heap leaching gold production and of the large-scale bulk mining methods used for mining low-grade gold deposits in the Western United States. Under his assistance, Afton Mines (1968-1973), Glamis Gold Limited and Eldorado Gold Corporation matured from junior exploration and early production companies into substantial gold producers. Mr. Millar served as Chairman of Glamis Limited from 1985 to 1998, Chairman of Eldorado Gold Corporation from 1992 to 1994 and Chairman of Alamos Gold Inc. from 1966 to 2003. He is currently Chairman and Director of Castle Gold Corp.
Property
San Antonio Gold Project, Baja California Sur, Mexico
The San Antonio project is located on the Baja Peninsula, adjacent to the historic mining town of San Antonio and 40 km southeast from the port city of La Paz. Good gravel roads traverse most of the project area and a high voltage power line crosses through it. The project consists of three concessions staked and 100% owned by Pediment that cover 40,200 ha (100,000 acres) and 14 km (about 9 miles) of favorable geological trend. In the late 1990s Echo Bay Minerals located and partly tested the Colinas gold resource that is contained by the company's staked ground.
;) |
| click to enlarge |
District Background
There has been mining from two separate deposits types in the region. Vein mining of silver-base metals deposits has taken place along a northeast-southwest trend, and more limited load gold mining along a separate and younger north-south trend. The northerly extensions of these two mineralized trends are projected to intersect in a flat lying, pediment covered area within the company's holdings. This setting is a prime target for discovery of new deposits.
The company's primary exploration model is focused on locating bulk tonnage grade gold deposits that could be mined by open pit. During the late 1990s work by Echo Bay outlined the Paradones Amarillo deposit (owned by a third party) on the southern end of the known trend that has measured and indicated resources of 55 million tonnes grading 1.1 grams per tonne gold, and the Colinas deposit on the northern end of the known trend. These deposits are analogous to the gold mines of the Mojave-Sonora Megashear that include the 5 million ounce deposits at Mesquite in California and at La Herradura in northwest Sonora.
The "Megashear" and BCS models contain gold deposited in shallowly dipping thrust faults that have enhanced grades and thickness at flexures (bends) in the systems and where they are accompanied by high angle structures that likely acted as conduits for hydrothermal fluids that carried the gold into the deposit traps. The deposits generally have subtle and restricted alteration envelopes. Gold is associated with sulphide minerals that typically represent a minor portion of a deposit volume. Because of a highly fractured character and oxidation of the of the sulphide minerals near surface, the deposits tend to "weather down" and be hidden beneath overburden.
San Antonio Project
The San Antonio project contains Mesozoic aged quartz-diorite and gabbro bodies intruding older metamorphic rocks. The Mesozoic intrusives include "peraluminous" bodies that are typically associated with gold bearing fluids generation. Low angle fault complexes, that may include zones of cataclasite and mylonite, are a locus for gold deposition. The company is confirming past results of reverse circulation drill testing by Echo Bay, and is conducing geochemical and induced polarization surveys as well new geological mapping in order to locate new targets.
Las Colinas Deposit
This deposit located is located in Pediment's Cirio concession. It was outlined by Echo Bay (now Kinross Gold) in 1996-97 during a 31-hole reverse circulation drill program in this area. Using data from 16 drill holes and five trenches Echo Bay reported an estimate of 10.6 million tonnes @ 1.02 g/t gold (roughly 340,000 ounces). The estimate was compiled before and is not compliant with 43-101 reporting standards, is presented only as a historical reference, and should not be relied on. Drill testing by Pediment has confirmed its location. The Colinas mineralization is hosted by within shallow lying fault zones containing disseminated and veinlet sulphide minerals. The deposit can reach 20-40 meters in thickness and is concentrated where high angle faults have cut the lower angle fault zones.
North target area (Los Planes)
In addition to outlining the Colinas deposit, drill testing by Echo Bay intersected three significant drill intersections within a broad pattern of testing in an area north of Colinas. Historic reverse circulation drill results from this northern area included 16.5 metres @ 2.02 g/t gold, 15 metres @ 1.32 g/t gold, and 4.5 metres of 3.3 g/t gold (see map) in three of five holes testing a 400 x 200 metre area.
Current Exploration
The Reverse Circulation drill program at its 100%-owned San Antonio gold project, Baja California Sur, Mexico has been indefinitely extended in order to further expand and determine the boundaries of the Los Planes deposit, and to close the gap between Los Planes and the historic Las Colinas resource. Drilling the Los Planes zone, the company has encountered thick intersections of good grade oxide gold mineralization. Over 14,000 metres of reverse circulation drilling has been completed to date.
A diamond drill rig has been added to the current drill program in order to obtain additional information about geological features and to collect metallurgical samples of the Los Planes mineralization.
La Colorada Gold Mine Project, Sonora, Mexico
The past producing La Colorada gold-silver mine property is located approximately 40 km southeast of Hermosillo, Sonora State, Mexico. La Colorada originally operated as a high-grade underground mine, which closed at the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1914. During the period 1993-2000 Eldorado Gold Corp developed a bulk tonnage heap leach operation from several open pits; although the operation was sold in late 2000, production continued by a private Mexican owner until April 2002. La Colorada was until recently Sonora's largest historic gold producer. Currently the La Herradura mine is Sonora's largest producing gold mine.
During the main historic mining period from 1876-1914 the production of more than 3 million ounces of gold was recorded. In I990 the Mexican Geological Service (SGM) measured 1.5 million tons of tailings that were utilized at the start of the open pit production by Eldorado in 1993. The last formal resource estimates for the open pit project were done by Eldorado in 2000. Eldorado published estimated bulk tonnage open pit reserves of 4,115,200 tonnes averaging 1.18 g/t gold (155,900 ounces) within an open pit resources of 21,534,300 tonnes at 0.87 g/t gold (599,300 ounces, total). Production records provided by the current owner show 3,617,340 tonnes of about 0.9 g/t gold were mined following that estimate. In early 1998 Eldorado reported an intersection of 9.4 metres of 31.27 g/t gold which included 3 metres of 80.14 g/t gold. (These estimates are not compliant with NI 43-101 and should not be relied upon, and are reproduced as historic reporting only. Pediment has not independently verified these estimates.)
;) |
| click to enlarge |
;) |
| click to enlarge |
Geological Background
The La Colorada gold vein deposits are hosted in a volcano-sedimentary sequence that has been locally altered to skarn by magma intrusions. Veins are focused along east-west and northeast-southwest trending structures that dip to the north and northwest at moderate angles, and cut across the skarn and intrusions. Surface mining was focused along three structures, the upper parts of which flare out into stockwork zones. Eight different structures in the La Colorada mine area appear to have older underground workings in gold bearing quartz veins. Past reports indicated the gold deposits formed under mesothermal or deep epithermal conditions, and implied a genetic relationship to the Cretaceous aged magma intrusions that created the skarn. Recent fluid-inclusion studies on veins indicate a low-temperature regime in the epithermal range, and radiometric age determinations indicate ages younger then those for the Cretaceous period of magma intrusion. In addition to this, recent investigations indicate some veins cut Miocene aged volcanic rocks, which suggests the vein forming period at La Colorada is as young as the veins of the Sierra Madre Occidental gold-silver belt located to the east of La Colorada.
Current Exploration
Pediment plans initially to conduct studies of the engineering and environmental parameters for dealing with the existing resource and workings while it completes database and geological studies to outline new targets for testing as possible high-grade ore sources. Pediment's primary goal is to test the project's high-grade vein potential, using exploration parameters for epithermal gold-silver systems. This will include evaluating both the bulk tonnage and high-grade potential of structures for which there is limited indication of past exploration testing.
;) |
| click to enlarge |
;) |
| click to enlarge |
Politics
Mexico is one of the most attractive countries in the world for exploration and mining. The country’s attractiveness to exploration companies results from combined facts such as a strong mining culture, favorable geology and political stability. Mexico’s foreign-ownership laws allow foreign companies to maintain 100% ownership of their properties to exploit the full benefit of successful exploration.
Paper
- Balance as at April 30, 2008 40,727,069
- Reserved for Issuance:
- Unexercised options 2,828,750
- Warrants outstanding 5,943,348
- Shares reserved for future issuance in connection
with Pitalla acquisition 2,500,000
- Total shares reserved to issuance 11,272,098
- Fully Diluted 51,999,167
Click here to Request Investor Information Direct from this Company