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The Malku Khota property is situated about 25 km from the Atocha silver property previously owned and explored by General Minerals. Atocha was sold to
General Minerals believes that Malku Khota has a similar geological setting and style of mineralization as Atocha. Initial geochemical programs returned anomalous surface silver values within the same sandstone unit that hosts mineralization at Atocha. At the time, General Minerals noted that the surface geochemistry “may represent stratabound, disseminated gold-silver deposits with minor lead and zinc values within the sandstones.”
Malku Khota also covers historic workings, some dating back to Spanish colonial times. Mining since the late 1800s exploited 11 structures on seven levels, with historic reports showing grades ranging from between 2 and 47 grams gold per tonne, and 27 grams to 1,500 grams silver.
Apex Silver can earn an initial 51% interest in the project by spending US$4 million on exploration over five years, and can boost this to 71% by spending a further US$7 million, for a total of US$11 million.
Apex plans to drill 11 holes totalling 2,500 metres to further test targets identified during a previous surface and underground sampling program. The program may be expanded, if results warrant.
The initial program will focus on the Limosna Hill area where previous sampling of old tunnels returned encouraging results, including 395 grams silver over a true width of 130 metres. This includes two higher-grade intervals of 90 metres grading 446 grams silver and 30 metres of 580 grams silver. The mineralization starts at surface, with no overburden.
General Minerals holds other projects in the Americas, including the Monitor gold-silver project being explored by
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