overview | geology | San Jose Area | latest work & results | maps
The San Carlos project is located
within a north-south trending belt of alkalic intrusive rocks
in eastern Mexico. Almaden identified the area in 1999 and over time acquired a 100% interest in several large claims comprising roughly 21,000 hectares in area which enclose the intrusive complex. A mining camp was active on part of the property during the late 1800s and early 1900s in a zone of San Carlos now known as the San Jose Area. For a comprehensive overview of work down on the property, please see Morgan Poliquin's Executive Summary of San Carlos +
The San Carlos project is situated in the State of Tamaulipas, Mexico, approximately 220 kilometres south of Monterrey, and approximately 120 kilometres NE of the major center of Ciudad Victoria. From Ciudad Victoria, access is via major paved roads to the town of San Carlos, a distance of approximately 150 kilometres, then for an additional 45 kilometres by good all weather roads to the San Jose prospect.
The geologic and structural environment at
San Carlos compares very favourably with the settings of several
world-class porphyry copper-gold and skarn deposits associated
with alkalic rocks. These include the Grasberg district, West
Papua, Indonesia and the Bingham Canyon deposit, Utah, U.S.A.
The San Carlos project covers an intrusive complex which has cut through folded and deformed limestone units. Almaden’s believes that the contact environment between the intrusive and sedimentary rocks is prospective for both copper-gold and silver-lead-zinc mineralisation. Work to date has only explored roughly a quarter of this contact environment, but results have been extremely encouraging. These results include the identification of a large area of porphyry-style Cu-Mo-Au mineralization. In addition high-grade zinc values were encountered likely associated with sulphide, replacement-style mineralization. The highlights from the drilling conducted include 12.11 meters of 0.11% Cu and 247.50 metres of 0.04% Cu and 0.008% Mo within the mineralized intrusive. Highlights of drilling which targeted skarn mineralization include 1.24 g/t Au and 1.26% Cu over 2.80 metres and 6.6 g/t over 1.4 meters.
These results include the identification of a large area of porphyry-style Cu-Mo-Au mineralization. In addition high-grade zinc values were encountered likely associated with sulphide, replacement-style mineralization. The highlights from the drilling conducted include 12.11 meters of 0.11% Cu and 247.50 metres of 0.04% Cu and 0.008% Mo within the mineralized intrusive. Highlights of drilling which targeted skarn mineralization include 1.24 g/t Au and 1.26% Cu over 2.80 metres and 6.6 g/t over 1.4 meters.
The San Jose
Area represents the most advanced area, being the site of an historic mining camp that was active during the late
1800's and early 1900's. Production from this area was from a
number of high-grade copper-gold skarn ore bodies and was limited to 100 metres of less in depth. An indication
of the high grade nature of these skarn bodies comes from records of 4,067 tons of direct shipping ore that averaged 4.02% copper
(Cu) and 11.24 grams/tonne gold.
Fifteen grab samples from dumps, taken by a major company,
averaged 2.58 grams/tonne gold, 15.4 grams/ tonne silver and
2.99% copper. One of the highest samples ran 14.25 grams/tonne
gold, 100 grams/tonne silver and 7.70% copper. Of equal interest
is the possibility of developing a large porphyry copper-gold
deposit in the altered intrusive complex, which has intruded
into the limestone units that host the high-grade skarn mineralisation.
Almaden's 2008-2009 program consisted of of 554 soil samples, IP geophysics, rock sampling, and geological mapping over the San Jose Area of the property. The soil sampling and geophysical grid was set up over an area of hydrothermal alteration within a stockwork veined intrusive body. Samples range from 0.0006 to 5.1 g/t gold (averaging 0.045 g/t gold), 13 ppm to 33,887 ppm (3.4%) copper (averaging 574 ppm copper), 0.04 to 30.8 ppm silver (averaging 0.6 ppm silver) and 0.37 to 236 ppm molybdenum (averaging 6.65 ppm molybdenum).
This work identified a broad area of elevated copper and molybdenum in soil now called the Main Zone and a smaller area to the west, now known as the Lupe Zone, of elevated gold, silver, copper, molybdenum in soil and chargeability responses. The Lupe zone is a new discovery and was not previously identified. READ MORE ABOUT THE NEW GOLD ZONE DISCOVERY HERE +
The sampling and geophysics conducted over the Main Zone outlined a 1.5 kilometer by 500 meter zone, that remains open to the south, of highly elevated chargeability, magnetic response and copper, molybdenum and gold in values in soils. Argillic altered and quartz-sulphide veined intrusive rocks have been identified in this area. A grab sample taken of outcropping argillic altered and stockwork veined intrusive taken at the northern edge of the main zone returned 0.19% copper.
At the north end of the Lupe Zone, a grab sample of Cu-oxide stained stockwork fractured intrusive rock taken from a small mine dump yielded 7.34% copper and 6.39 g/t gold. Overall the 584 soil samples range from 0.0006 to 5.1 g/t gold (averaging 0.046 g/t gold), 13 ppm to 33,887 ppm (3.4%) copper (averaging 551 ppm copper), 0.04 to 33.7 ppm silver (averaging 0.6 ppm silver) and 0.37 to 236 ppm molybdenum (averaging 6.64 ppm molybdenum). The Lupe zone has been traced for over 1 kilometre along strike. Gold in soil samples range from 0.0055 to 0.64 g/t gold (averaging 0.068 g/t gold), 79.3 ppm to 15,221 ppm (1.5%) copper (averaging 1,095 ppm copper), 0.1 to 7.6 ppm silver (averaging 1.1 ppm silver) and 0.6 to 73.3 ppm molybdenum (averaging 6.5 ppm molybdenum). This anomaly is at least 200 meters across along all five IP (200 meter) lines. On one line 8 consecutive 50 meter spaced soil samples (spanning over 400 meters) ranged from 621 ppm to 3690 ppm copper (3.7% copper) and averaged 1331 ppm copper (0.13% copper). These same samples ranged from 19.6 ppb to 100 ppb gold, averaging 56 ppb gold. Almaden’s management believes that this new geochemical and geophysical anomaly relates to the porphyry system already identified on the property.
| 2008-2009 Soil & Rock Geochemistry |
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Work across the whole San Carlos property:
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