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Picachos
The Picachos project area consists of a total of approximately 19,000 acres (7,700 hectares). The area includes the Picachos claim with 10,370 acres (4,200 hectares), the Camargo claim at 6,350 acres (2,570 hectares) and Camargo-2 with 2,390 acres (970 hectares).
A Conceptual Study of the Picachos silver-gold area conducted by Watts, Griffis and McOuat (WGM) in 2004 reported that the eastern portion of the Picachos claim hosts a major north-northwest trending shear zone measuring at least 2.5 miles (four kilometers) in length. This zone controls epithermal mineralization at the El Pino prospect and may be related to gold-porphyry stock at depth. WGM further explained that even at relatively low elevations, the silver-gold ratios are quite high and it is possible that the near surface mineralization at El Pino and El Toro represents the upper part of a largely unseen (or buried) mineralized system.
For the purposes of the report, WGM examined various deposits in Durango State within the Sierra Madre region that are believed to offer comparable geology to Northwestern's Picachos area. The property is located within the gold-silver district spanning 994 miles (1,600 kilometers) from near the northern U.S. border to the Pachuca deposit just north of Mexico City.
Most of the regional deposits and mineralization on the property are hosted within a Late Eocene volcanic complex, specifically within caldera structures. Mineralization is of the low sulphidation epithermal type occurring in structurally controlled veins and brecciated zones within hydrothermally altered tuffs and ignimbrites. The previous operator, Camargo, had sampled 10 historical mineralized areas, many consisting of multiple showings of silver-gold and silver-lead-zinc-copper-(gold) mineralization. Based on the results of more than 190 soil, stream and rock samples reported by Camargo and 10 characterization samples collected by WGM from six of these sites, WGM is of the opinion that the Picachos area has the potential to host an economically significant silver-gold deposit.
Gold and silver mineralization is widespread in the Picachos property as indicated by numerous old mine workings (an area of more than 50 square kilometers) and geochemical rock sampling by Camargo which reportedly gave average metal values in the caldera structure of 0.9 grams of gold per tonne (g/t) and 98 g/t silver and a silver-gold ratio in the order of 200:1 to 275:1. Research by Clarke and Titley (1988) in the Tayoltita mine area about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north from Picachos, in the same geological setting indicated that the higher silver-gold ratios were characteristic of the top of the epithermal boiling zone and showed that the silver-gold ratios at Tayoltita were considerable lower indicating the possibility that the mineralization at Picachos was near the top of the epithermal zone. Sampling by Camargo of the Breccia Madre in the upper stope at El Pino mine gave an average grade of 462 g/t silver 2.6 g/t gold across 5.2 meters. Sampling by WGM, in the same upper stope, gave 722 g/t silver and 2.78 g/t gold over 2 meters. At the El Toro mine, some 800 meters lower in elevation and approximately 5 kilometers to the southwest, sampling by Camargo returned 761 g/t silver and 1.8 g/t gold across 1.8 meters. A WGM sample in the same area over 1.5 meters returned 250 g/t silver and 0.39 g/t gold.
WGM postulates, based on the known mineralization on the property, and based on other regional producers whose deposits range from 1.2-97 million tonnes, that the Picachos property has an exploration target with the potential to host a deposit in the order of 10 to 20 million tonnes with metal grades in the order of 200 to 500 g/t silver and 1.0 to 3.0 g/t gold. The potential quantity and grade is conceptual in nature. There has not been sufficient exploration on the property to define a mineral resource and that it is uncertain if further exploration will result in discovery of a mineral resource on the property.
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