Projects
Overview
The Company's three gold exploration projects are Del Carmen, Despoblados, and Arroyo de los Amarillos (Amarillos). Malbex has budgeted approximately US$6 million for exploration work on the three projects over the 2009/2010 field season, which commenced in October 2009 and is expected to continue until May 2010.
The properties are located in San Juan province in northwestern Argentina and encompass a total of 22,400 hectares. There is excellent access to the properties, which are 4-5 hours by paved highway and all-weather gravel road from San Juan City. All three projects are located in the prolific El Indio Gold Belt, along the border with Chile. Two of the projects (Amarillos and Despoblados) are adjacent to 30 million ounces of past production and gold reserves at Barrick's Veladero and Pascua Lama deposits. Amarillos and Del Carmen host hydrothermal alteration zones similar to those associated with the high-sulphidation gold deposits at Veladero and Pascua Lama and the former El Indio mine in Chile, while the geologic setting at Despoblados is remarkably similar to Kinross' FDN deposit in Ecuador.
Malbex holds a 100% interest in these properties through agreements with the Instituto Provincial de Exploraciones y Exploitaciones Mineral (IPEEM), an arm's length agency of the San Juan provincial government. The 5 1/2 -year agreements run from September 2008, and are convertible into 30-year renewable exploitation licenses with a 3% royalty to the province and a 2% royalty to IPEEM.
San Juan is the most pro-mining jurisdiction in Argentina, as demonstrated by the commissioning of the Veladero (Barrick) and Gualcamayo (Yamana) mines in recent years and approvals for the construction of the even larger Pascua-Lama mine (Barrick). Troy Resources has also recently commenced construction of the Casposo mine in San Juan province.
