This most recently identified zone, El Rosario, is located east of the town of Urique and comprises multiple historic mines and prospects that exploited a system of high grade veins. Formal mining of this area ended in the late 1920's and consisted of several hundred metres of underground workings on three levels. These historic workings are all within a zone of strongly silicified andesite host rocks that measures approximately 100 metres wide and over 400 metres long. The zone is open at depth and along strike sampling has yielded significant values of as much as 10.6 g/t gold and 8,290.0 g/t (or 241.5 ounces per ton) silver from 10-40 centimetre wide veins. There were also two veins that returned assays greater than 3,000 g/t silver and a half dozen other veins grading greater than 1,000 g/t silver. And there are more that went unsampled. Of note for the technical types is that these veins consistently have elevated gold grades, which is significant as several mineralizing systems in the district that have similar gold grades at surface have been proven to have better continuity at depth. Sampling within the altered andesite has yielded gold and silver values of as much as 0.2 to 0.3 g/t gold and 5.0 to 41.0 g/t silver suggesting that the El Rosario area has the potential to host a bulk tonnage open pittable resource.
“What we’ve identified there now is a target that’s over 400 m long and 100 m wide. We’re dealing with silicified andesites in which we see discrete veins coming up through it, you’ve got stringers, stockwork, and some of the sampling of the individual veins are yielding up to 8 kilos per tonne of silver. We’re getting some shockingly high values”, said Mr. Foreman, P.Geo., president of Yale Resources.
Numerous plus-one million ounce gold deposits have been discovered in this 300 km long region of southwestern Chihuahua: including Mulatos (Alamos Gold), Dolores (Minefinders)
The El Sauzal mine entered production in 2004 and was scheduled to produce 170,000 ounces in 2005. As of Dec. 31, 2005, the mine has proven and probable reserves of 15,821,000 tonnes grading 3.29 g/t gold (for a total of 1,673,000 ounces) and measured and indicated resources of 20,529,000 tonnes grading 2.73 g/t gold (for a total of 1,802,000 ounces). As if having a successful exploration program in a district scale project isn’t enough, Yale is also building an asset at it’s wholly owned La Verde Project in Sonora.
Having just returned from a field trip to the La Verde Grande mine, the crown jewel in Yale’s La Verde project, Mr. Foreman showed us pictures of management team members underground in the old workings. Oxidized copper on the surfaces of the adit imparts a blue-green tinge to the ambient light generated from the flash. The walls are literally covered from top to bottom with copper oxidization.
“They were mining high grade copper from here”, explains Mr. Foreman. “This was being mined in the early 1900’s. They were hand sorting high grade ore that they were chasing. And I’m confident that they only exploited a small portion of the deposit”
Yale recently announced an addition to its La Verde project - the La Cobriza claim. "This ground is a very important addition to the La Verde Project as there are several geological and structural trends that have been identified that cross the La Cobriza property,” said Mr. Foreman. “Yale now has control over all of the significant known mineralization in the vicinity of the La Verde Grande Mine and we will be able to fully take advantage of having unencumbered access to test the multi-million tonne potential of the property."
A sampling program by the Consejo de Recursos Minerales on La Cobriza in 1982 showed that there is skarn mineralization irregularly distributed over a strike length greater than 500 metres. Twenty five widely spaced chip channel samples from the various historic workings throughout this area ranged from 0.28 to 5.45 % copper, 0.15 to 8.60 % zinc, 3.90 to 578.00 g/t silver and 0.1 to 11.1 g/t gold (note: these samples are included for reference only as they are historical in nature due to them being collected before the creation of NI 43-101).
“So we’re advancing well on all fronts,” Mr. Foreman concluded. “We’ll see trenching and sample results from the Carol property, which are visually interesting, I’m told; drilling at Urique; and we’re looking forward to results of sampling at La Cobriza and elsewhere at La Verde. So we have lots of news coming.”
