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

3.0 HISTORY
The El Castillo Project is a grass roots discovery that resulted from a regional exploration program
initiated by Battle Mountain Gold in 1995 to explore for sub-one gram Au per tonne bulk tonnage targets.
Battle Mountain was taken over by Newmont in 2000 and Newmont decided that the El Castillo was too
small to meet their corporate requirements. Newmont completed a modest program of site reclamation
(replanting drill pads, and recontouring and replanting some of the drill roads) and turned the property
back to the Government of Mexico.
Initial regional work by Battle Mountain involved interpretation of satellite imagery, regional geophysical
data and regional geological mapping. A number of areas were selected on the basis of the regional
studies, one of which was the El Castillo project area. Subsequent stream sediment geochemical surveys
outlined a significant gold geochemical anomaly in the El Castillo area which led to a successful program
of drilling that resulted in delineation of the El Castillo gold resource by Battle Mountain.
Battle Mountain completed 207 reverse-circulation (“RC”) holes and six diamond drillholes (twins of six
RC holes) within the El Castillo project area. This drillhole data has provided the basis for Howe’s
evaluation of the resource and reserve potential of the El Castillo deposit.
Battle Mountain (Schumacher 1999) completed a resource estimate, scoping study, preliminary mine plan
and reserve estimate that indicated the potential for a viable mining operation with similarities to Hecla’s
La Choya deposit in northern Mexico.
Castle Gold acquired the Property in 2002. Work completed by Castle Gold includes six twin diamond
drillholes, air-track drilling, rock ship sampling and bulk metallurgical testing. This 2006 work will be
described in the following sections of the report.
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