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