Overview

The Valle Ancho Project is a significant land package held by the Province of Catamarca that covers approximately 1,000 km2 of underexplored and highly prospective ground on the Argentinian side of Chile's Maricunga Gold Belt. More than 100 million ounces of gold have been defined on the Chilean side of the border whereas the Argentinian side has seen much less exploration despite having similar geology. The Company has entered into an option agreement with the Province of Catamarca and can earn a 100% interest in the Project by completing $8.0 million in expenditures by December 2022.

The project area was initially explored in the 1990's resulting in the identification of several interesting gold and copper-gold targets. While not independently verified by the Company, historical drill intercepts include 62 metres at 1.0 g/t gold, and 108 metres at 1.0 g/t gold. Despite the encouraging results obtained by earlier explorers the area was not available for exploration for most of the last 20 years The main targets lie along a major northwest trending structural corridor called the Valle Ancho Lineament. Many of the major deposits in the Andes are spatially related to similar northwest trending lineaments.

The Company carried out an initial field program at the Valle Ancho Project during the 2019/2020 Southern Hemispshere Summer. The exploration program focused on review and compilation of historical data, analysis of satellite imagery, field examination, surface sampling and mapping of existing prospects, and the undertaking of an airborne geophysical survey over the project area to identify, develop and prioritize targets for further evaluation.