Normabec livin’ the dream in Mexico

It was another grueling day as a geologist for Pierre ODowd, vice-president exploration for Normabec Resources (NMB-T) and he was seriously considering calling it quits.

That was just a few months before he discovered a geologists dream – the Real de Catorce property in San Louis Potosi state, Mexico, in 2006.

ODowd was overcome by rugged mountain terrain, heat and dehydration during what turned out to be a wild goose chase for a non-existent silver vein.

He was sweating, tired and out of water. He thought he was getting too old.

This type of day was nothing new for ODowd, who has spent much of his 25-year geology career looking for minerals in South America, Canada, China and Africa. But when ODowd found himself exhausted and alone on the side of the mountain while the rest of the group went on, he began to contemplate his future.

The next day, ODowd demanded a horse, and set off in search of another vein. Although what he found that day was insignificant, the tranquility of the horseback ride through the vast wilderness of the Sierra Madre calmed and motivated him to continue his search for a Mexican property.

The whole point of me going into geology was about being free, traveling, seeing new things, places and people, and not being confined to a desk job, ODowd says.

ODowds first visit to the Real de Catorce was less taxing. He was immediately impressed with the 4,400-hectare property – a former, world-class silver district that has never been explored with modern technology.

Thats basically a geologists dream – I know, we have strange dreams, ODowd says.

Real de Catorce came with a historical resource of 533,000 tonnes grading 275 grams silver per ton, as well as about 2 million tonnes of tailings with grades between 60 and 100 grams silver per ton. The majority of the resource comes from the Santa Ana mine, which hosts the Veta Madre vein, and was the most recent mine in production. A small percentage of the resource is based on the San Augustin and Candelarina mines.

A year and half later and official numbers are on their way a National Instrument 43-101 resource is soon due along with a prefeasibility study that will evaluate the potential for an open pit, metallurgy, mine and mill design. An old, partially dismantled 500-tonne-per day mill on the property will need to be replaced.

ODowd says his goal is to build the resource to 20 million tonnes before making a production decision.

An underground sampling program showed some positive results 100 samples taken every 2 metres from Veta Madre averaged 310 grams silver per tonne, 40 samples from the Anden vein averaged 200 grams while another 21 samples from another portion of the same vein averaged 1,037 grams.

Samples taken from the exposed vein on surface over 535 metres averaged 200 grams silver per tonne, which will make up 2,000 metres of an 11,000-metre drill program launched in July.

First Normabec is drilling 3,000 metres from surface along the southeastern extension of Veta Madre, intersecting with 6,000 metres of drilling done in a fanning pattern from underground.

Its been partially mined out by the old guys who took the richest portions, ODowd says. We want to see if the whole vein is mineralized.

Previous miners lost track of the Veta Madre at a flexion point where the vein changes direction. A junior company discovered the continuation of the vein in 1997.

Most mining on the property stopped where the water table started, so the company is optimistic about finding more mineralization at depth.

Silver mineralization was first discovered in 1772 and a rush of 40,000 miners soon permeated the hillsides of Real de Catorce. Stone chapels and homes sprung up atop every exposed vein.

The evidence is still there. The village of La Luz, where the mining office and several mine entrances are located, is inhabited by about 200 people whove made the stone ruins their homes.

The nearby town, Real de Catorce, has become a haven for tourists and historians the cobblestone roads and stone buildings are relics of a time when the area was the third largest silver producer in all of Mexico.

More than half of the silver that has come from Real de Catorce was extracted between 1773 and 1776 with a total of 230 million oz. produced up until 1990 at an average grade of 1,350 grams silver per tonne.

Since the first major boom, mining has been sporadic with economics and politics each playing their part in the up and downswing of mining.

The property vendor, Restauradora de las Minas de Catorce, which holds a 3% net smelter return royalty, was the last company to produce silver from Real de Catorce. Restauradora stopped mining in 1990 when workers went on strike Restauradora was feeling the pinch of low silver prices and its employees were yearning for better equipment.

Much of what the company mined was old fill left in the stopes that graded about 500 grams silver per tonne.

With hundreds of years of mining activity and all the high-grade stuff taken care of, some might think Real de Catorce has had its day.

Not so, ODowd would tell you.

Back in the 18th and 19th centuries they were mining for kilograms per tonne were looking for 200 grams, he says.

Before the drill program, Normabec had spent about $400,000 on the property. For the next year, the company has about $4 million budgeted.

ODowd has his sights set on more than Veta Madre.

He talks minerals, metallurgy and mining from morning to night. Although he complains of getting little sleep, his swift pace never slows as he races about from vein to vein along the steep, arduous property that reaches 3,100 metres above sea level.

The Purisima chute was one of the first ore chutes in the 18th century and also the largest. It was never mined below the water table.

The San Augustin vein, which is sub-parallel to Veta Madre, had some of the highest grades in the past and though the vein is narrow in comparison, silver production was similar to Veta Madre.

The stone frame of an old building with arched windows makes the San Augustin fault easy to find.

As usual, they built a church right on it, ODowd says.

The church wont be in the way though — most of the drilling will need to be done from underground anyway because of the angle of the vein.

Normabec has discovered about 7 new veins between the Veta Madre and San Augustin alone, and about 20 in total. Further exploration will have to wait until next year.

We need a lot of money and a lot of people to cover all the favourable ground, ODowd says.

Thats not a complaint, but a challenge that keeps ODowd and Normabec going.