43-101 2008 Technical Report On The La Fortuna Project, Durango ...

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