La Trinidad Mine Area Summary
On April 1, 2021, GR Silver Mining acquired 100% of Marlin Gold Mining Ltd. (“Marlin”). Marlin owns 100% of Oro Gold de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (“Oro Gold”) a Mexican company that owns the La Trinidad gold mine (“La Trinidad”),and 12 highly prospective concessions totalling 107,392.5 hectares located adjacent to GR Silver’s existing portfolio of properties. This gives the Company control of 75 kilometres of prospective trend with known mineralization including three zones and over 24 shallow gold-silver old workings, which are strategically located in the historic Rosario Mining District, Sinaloa, Mexico, on the western edge of the prolific Sierra Madre Occidental gold-silver belt.
Gold mineralization was discovered on the La Trinidad Property in the early 1900s. Anaconda carried out exploration on the La Trinidad Property between 1984 and 1988. In 1992, Almaden Resources Corporation (Almaden) acquired the property. Almaden optioned the property to Eldorado Gold Corp. (EGC) in 1995. EGC carried out additional exploration and, in 1996, initiated open pit and heap leach operations at the La Trinidad Area, which continued into 1998. Minera Camargo, S.A. de C.V. (Minera Camargo) staked the concessions in 2005. Oro Gold Resources Ltd. acquired the concessions in 2005 and carried out exploration until 2010. Following a business transaction, Oro Gold Resources Ltd. changed its name to Oro Mining Ltd. and went on to complete a historical NI 43-101 technical report (SRK Consulting [SRK], 2011). Marlin, formerly Oro Mining Ltd., later completed a historical preliminary economic assessment (SRK, 2013). Marlin ran a five-year open pit heap leach operation in the La Trinidad Area from early 2014 to March 2019.
The La Trinidad Mine Area (“La Trinidad”) is located 90 kilometres southeast of Mazatlán and 27 kilometres east-southeast of Rosario. The property is accessed by way of a paved road from Mazatlán to Rosario and then a 42-kilometre all-weather gravel road. The property is comprised of four contiguous concessions totalling 46,749 hectares. La Trinidad is considered to have been one of the highest-grade open-pit, heap leach gold mines in Mexico until it was closed in 2019. The mine includes infrastructure such as a high voltage power line that is connected to the Mexican Regional Power grid, offices, shops, 80-person camp, infirmary, warehouses, foundations for a processing plant, Taunus open-pit (currently under reclamation), leach pads containing 1.5 Mt of processed oxide ore and other key infrastructure, which can be fundamental for future project development.
Gold mineralization at the Taunus Pit occurs in intensely silicified tectonic and quartz matrix hydrothermal breccias, hosted in volcanic rocks. The mineralization is reported to be associated with a gold-rich, intermediate sulphidation epithermal system.
Oro Gold acquired the La Trinidad Property from Minera Camargo S.A. de C.V. in 2005 and subsequently commenced drilling and regional exploration on the area. The property was previously owned and operated by a subsidiary of Eldorado Gold Corp. (“Eldorado”). Based on Eldorado’s annual reports, production from the Taunus Pit commenced in 1996 and ceased operation in 1998. A second zone, below that which was mined by Eldorado, was discovered by Oro Gold. From 2014 to 2019, Marlin operated a heap leach, open pit operation at La Trinidad. While Marlin focused primarily on advancing production at the Taunus Pit, today the remainder of the La Trinidad land package and the surrounding area presents an opportunity for cost-effective exploration and potential discovery of new silver and gold mineralized zones. The following royalty interest and purchase rights are related to the Trinidad Project: 1.0% NSR to Mako Mining, with the opportunity to purchase back in full for US$2.0M, 0.5% to 1.5% to Minera Camargo, with the ability to purchase back in full or part for US$1.0M and 1.5% NSR royalty to the concessionaries of selective exploration concessions.
