overview | geology | maps | latest work & results | past work
The 100% owned Santa Isabela property covers a roughly 14,000 hectare area in Coahuila State, Mexico. The project was identified
by Almaden during a regional helicopter-borne prospecting program and covers
a low-lying ridge located within 50 kilometers of the large Penasquito
Ag-Pb-Zn deposit owned by Western Silver Corporation and the
historic Concepcion del Oro polymetallic mining camp. The property is accessible by road.
carbonate replacement system
The property covers an area of structurally controlled jasperoid replacement silicification and calcite veining traceable over 700 meters in outcrop and developed within a package of limestones.
Silver-lead-zinc mineralization at the Santa Isabela property is thought to represent the upper levels of a potentially much larger mineralized carbonate replacement (CRD) system at depth. Although the work at the Santa Isabela property to date is preliminary in nature, it has identified an interesting and prospective CRD style target.
In addition, grades associated with the mineralization sampled are consistent with the style mineralization from the districts within the Mexican CRD Belt. The most notable of which is the nearby Conception del Oro mining district which is thought to have produced in excess of 40 Mt reportedly grading 12.8% Zn, 5.8% Pb, 275 g/t Ag, up to 1.5 g/t Au and up to 1.5% Cu. Western Silver Corporation has recently released a new resource estimate for its Penasquito deposit, located immediately west of the Concepcion del Oro camp, with a total measured and indicated sulphide resource of 309.75 Million tonnes grading 31.56 g/t Ag, 0.31% Pb and 0.78% Zn.
IP, soil samples, & location of proposed drill holes |
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Soil
and Rock Sampling:
results
of work from August to November 2005 |
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July 2007: Almaden acquires the 12,300 hectare (30,393 acre) Matehuapil claim. During past work programs on Santa Isabela, alteration and mineralization was noted to extend off the Almaden claim block to the south, and onto the then Mexican government owned Matehuapil claim. Almaden has now acquired the claim subject to a 1% NSR payable to the Mexican government, through being the successful bidder in a state auction and by agreeing to make payments totaling roughly $C500,000 to the Mexican government. The Matehaupil claim is centred on historic lead-zinc silver and copper-gold mines and carbonate replacement and skarn mineralization spatially associated with intrusive rocks. Almaden has acquired and is now reviewing the data pertaining to the historic mines of the Matehuapil claim.
February 2006 : JOGMEC completed a $US300,000 geochemical,
geophysical and drilling program. Delays and difficulties in
drilling under the timing constraints limited the program
to only one hole which was drilled to a depth of 363 meters. The program had planned to complete 1500m in 5 holes and was designed to test geochemical and geophysical anomalies
which corresponded with high-grade surface values of
lead, zinc and silver.
The drill hole encountered two
broad zones of anomalous lead, zinc, silver and arsenic values
within zones of bleached, brecciated and calcite veined limestone.
Roughly 400 meters away from the location of this drill hole,
IP geophysics identified an area of highly elevated chargeability
responses thought to represent massive sulphide style mineralization
at depth. Budget and time constraints did not allow for drill
testing this anomaly.
The alteration and mineralization observed
in the hole drilled, are interpreted to be typical of that associated
with areas peripheral to zones of massive sulphide mineralization.
August 2005: Santa Isabela optioned to JOGMEC. [more +]
April 2005: To date
twenty four samples have been taken of oxidized jasperoid and
calcite veined limestone returning zinc values up to 11.95% and
averaging 4.68%, lead values up to 7.33% and averaging 1.94%
and silver values up to 172 g/t and averaging 34.8 g/t.
Preliminary soil geochemical and induced polarization
(IP) geophysical surveys were conducted along three lines, approximately
1 km long established at roughly 500 m intervals perpendicular
to the ridge. Seventy-four soil samples were collected along
the lines at 25 m spacings within the arc of the ridge and at
50 m intervals along the flats at its base.
The strongest response
for lead, zinc and silver was obtained from the central line - 20700.
A continuous series of samples representing a width of 150 m
yielded lead values >250 ppm (to 1.78%), zinc values >300
ppm (to 2.10%) and silver values >1 g/t (to 17.1 g/t).
The
preliminary pole-dipole IP survey identified a broad chargeability
high that was most prominent on one line with chargeability values
over 40 mV/V. This response likely indicates the presence of
significant sulphides at depth. [more +]
