43-101 2008 Technical Report On The La Fortuna Project, Durango ...
43-101 2008 Technical Report On The La Fortuna Project, Durango ...
43-101 2008 Technical Report On The La Fortuna Project, Durango ...
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2.2 ACCESSIBILITY, CLIMATE, PHYSIOGRAPHY, LOCAL RESOURCES AND<br />
INFRASTRUCTURE<br />
2.2.1 Accessibility<br />
Access to the property is good with total driving time from <strong>Durango</strong> City varying between 1.5 and 2.0<br />
hours depending on traffic. Driving distance to the Property is 117 km (measured from the center of<br />
<strong>Durango</strong>). <strong>The</strong> first 111 km are paved and the final six km consist of well-maintained gravel road.<br />
Driving distances are shown in Table 4.<br />
Table 4. Driving distances from <strong>Durango</strong> to the Property.<br />
Distance Road Surface<br />
<strong>Durango</strong> to the Coneto Comonfort road<br />
(National Highway 45)<br />
100 km Paved<br />
Intersection of National Highway 45 and<br />
Coneto Comonfort road to Property access<br />
11 km Paved<br />
Well-maintained gravel access road 6 km Gravel<br />
2.2.2 Climate<br />
El Castillo is situated in a zone classified as semi-dry and receives an average annual rainfall of 550.5<br />
mm. <strong>The</strong> climate is temperate with an average annual temperature of 18º and maximum temperatures<br />
reach 35º C and minimum temperatures 2º C (CNEMSG, 1988). <strong>The</strong> region averages 17 frost events per<br />
year beginning in October and extending to April. Dominant wind direction is from northwest to<br />
southeast and the rainy season is from June through to August, minimal rainfall occurs from September to<br />
May.<br />
Table 5 provides rainfall information that will be useful during planning of the El Castillo heap leach<br />
facilities. Maximum rainfall (in millimeters) during a 24-hour period is broken down on a monthly basis<br />
for the period 1948-2000 for the climatological station at San Juan del Rio is only 15 km east of the El<br />
Cairo property at similar elevation and in a similar geographic setting.<br />
2.2.3 Physiography and Vegetation<br />
<strong>The</strong> area is characterized by large alluvial terraces dissected by small streams resulting in up to 300 m of<br />
relief in the area. <strong>The</strong> elevations near the village of Atotonilco the central valley is approximately 1,700<br />
m above mean sea level (“amsl”) while the top of the mesa in the vicinity of the El Castillo where the<br />
proposed pit and plant would be located is at an elevation of 1,800 m amsl.<br />
Vegetation consists of small trees, bushes and cacti (Plate 1).<br />
2.2.4 Local Resources and Infrastructure<br />
Power and water are available in the area. Castle Gold reports that a 400 Kva power line is present in<br />
Coneto Comonfort, some 16 km distant and a limited supply of water is available from a reservoir located<br />
2.5 km from the project site. <strong>The</strong> remainder of the water required for a mining operation will have to<br />
come from wells to be drilled in nearby valleys. Limited cellular phone service is available on the<br />
Property.<br />
<strong>The</strong> area covered by Castle Gold’s mineral rights is small. However, as discussed in Section 0, Castle<br />
Gold controls a large area of surface rights and this area is adequate for the development of mining<br />
facilities.<br />
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