Pan American Goldfields Ltd Announces Acquisition of the Cerro Delta Gold Project in the Maricunga Gold Belt
By Pan American Goldfields Ltd, PRNEWednesday, March 2, 2011
BROOMFIELD, Colorado, March 3, 2011 - Further to its press release of December 21st, 2010, Pan American
Goldfields Ltd (OTCBB:"MXOM") (the "Company") is pleased to announce it has
executed an agreement with Compania Minera Alto Rio Salado S.A., a private
Argentine entity, for the acquisition of the 15,000 hectare Cerro Delta
project in northwest La Rioja Province, Argentina. Under the agreement the
Company must pay $150,000 on signing (paid), and $200,000 on the first
anniversary, $500,000 on the second, $750,000 on the third, $1.2 million on
the fourth, and $2.2 million on the fifth anniversary, with a final option
payment of $5 million due on the sixth anniversary to purchase a 100%
interest in the project. All figures are in US dollars. The vendor will
retain a 1% NSR. All payments are completely optional, and the Company has no
work commitments beyond the minimal requirements to maintain the mining
rights under Argentine law.
In conjunction with the acquisition, the Company has completed a private
placement of 5 million units at $0.20 per unit, for total proceeds of $1
million. Each unit consists of one share and one share purchase warrant. Each
warrant is convertible into one share at a conversion price of $0.30 for a
period of two years from the closing date.
The company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Bruno Le
Barber to its Board of Directors. Mr. Le Barber is the co-founder of Vortex
Capital, a Hong Kong based gold fund. Previously he was a Vice President at
Morgan Stanley in London where he advised trading desks and a large investor
base while publishing macro-economic studies. Mr. Le Barber was also a global
technical strategist with ABN Amro in Paris. He manages Vortex together with
Emilio Alvarez, former Executive Director, Equity Research with Morgan
Stanley in London.
The Cerro Delta project is located approximately 20 km east of the 28.8
million ounce (resource) Cerro Casale gold project which is being developed
by Barrick and Kinross and 29 km southeast of the even larger Caspiche
project currently being evaluated by Exeter Resource Corporation. Cerro Delta
is located along a regional fault structure trending west-northwest to
east-southeast which is associated with the the Aldebaran, Cerro Casale,
Quebrada Seca, and Maricela deposits in Chile before crossing into Argentina
and intersecting the Cerro Delta project.
The deposits of the Maricunga Belt are often very large but low grade
porphyry gold-copper type deposits with variably oxidized sulfide stockwork
or veinlets with or without associated copper (Maricunga, Volcan, Caspiche,
Cerro Casale) or high sulfidation type epithermal quartz veins and stockworks
with better grades and without copper (La Coipa, Lobo-Marte). It is common to
have both deposit types in a single large deposit area such as is the case
with the Cerro Delta project. In addition, most deposits in the Maricunga
Belt exhibit a zoned alteration pattern with an area of potassic alteration
flanked by argillic and advanced argillic alteration with some amount of
silicification, which is also common to Cerro Delta. Also common to deposits
of the Maricunga Belt are large scale faults and lineaments of a general
north-south trend and which tend to localize the emplacement of mineralized
intrusions. At Cerro Delta these regional structures are mostly N-S, NNW and
E-W with several intersecting zones which appear related to alteration and
mineralization.
Gold mineralization at Cerro Delta is hosted in both a Miocene porphyry
(Cerro Porfiro) and a peripheral high sulphidation epithermal system (Cerro
Delta). The mineralization in the porphyry is in a stockwork system of quartz
and sulphide veinlets mainly emplaced in the potassic alteration zone with
gold contents in rock samples at surface grading up to 0.8 g/t. In the
epithermal system the gold is in siliceous breccias with gold contents up to
4.0 g/t. There are large +100 ppb gold-in-soil anomalies that cover both the
porphyry and the epithermal mineralization which are also coincident with IP
geophysical anomalies. The entire auriferous zone which overlays the porphyry
and the epithermal system is approximately 1.5 km by 2km in size.
A geophysical program was performed on Cerro Delta in 2008 which outlined
several large IP anomalies that are associated with both the Cerro Porfiro
(high chargeability) and Cerro Delta (high resistivity) areas, another
characteristic in common with the known deposits along the Maricunga belt. At
Cerro Delta these IP chargeability anomalies extend to 1,000 m by 600 m in
area. Coincident with the IP anomalies are two areas of gold-in-soil
anomalies with anomalous values from 25 to over 100 ppb gold that form
several contiguous zones measuring up to 200 m by 800 m in area. Similar gold
in soil anomalies are noted over the Refugio, Caspiche and Cerro Casale
deposits. For example, the gold in soil and rock chip anomalous gold zone
originally mapped by Anglo American at Capiche measured 650 by 300 meters.
The Cerro Delta project is drill ready and the company intends to begin
drilling in the fourth quarter of 2011.
"The acquisition of the Cerro Delta project is a watershed event for the
company" noted President Miguel De Nanno. "It is a drill ready, very high
impact exploration project which in addition to containing a large anomalous
gold zone has many other compelling similarities to large deposits in the
area. I would like to emphasize just how aggressively we intend to pursue
this project and others in the region. I would also like to welcome to the
board Mr. Le Barber. His expertise in international finance and gold markets
makes him a very valuable member of our board and I look forward to working
with him in the future."
On behalf of the Board of Directors
Miguel Di Nanno, President
Safe Harbor Disclosure
The information in this press release contains forward-looking statements
regarding future events or the future financial performance of the Company.
Please note that any statements that may be considered forward-looking are
based on projections; that any projections involve judgment, and that
individual judgments may vary. Moreover, these projections are based only on
limited information available to us now, which is subject to change. Although
those projections and the factors influencing them will likely change, we are
under no obligation to inform you if they do. Actual results may differ
substantially from any such forward looking statements as a result of various
factors, many of which are beyond our control, including, among others, the
future financial and operating performances of our projects; the estimation
of mineral resources and the realization of mineral reserves, if any, on our
existing and any future projects; the timing of exploration, development,
production activities and estimated future production, if any; estimates
related to costs of production, capital, operating and exploration
expenditures; requirements for additional capital and our ability to raise
additional capital on a timely basis and on acceptable terms; government
regulation of mining operations, environmental risks, reclamation and
rehabilitation expenses; title disputes or claims against our existing and
any future projects; and the future price of gold, silver, or other minerals.
These and other factors can be found in our filings with the SEC. The Company
undertakes no obligation to release publicly the results of any revision to
these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances following
the date of this release.
The technical information in this release has been reviewed by Gary
Parkison, CPG, a member of the Board of Directors and a Qualified Person
under the terms of NI43-101.
%SEDAR: 00029631E
For further information: Investor Relations Christopher R Anderson +1-604-628-7065
For further information: Investor Relations, Christopher R Anderson, +1-604-628-7065
Tags: argentina, Broomfield, Colorado, March 3, Pan American Goldfields Ltd