Leadville options Mexican gold deposit

Denver — Junior Leadville Mining & Milling (LMMI-O) has signed a letter of intent to acquire the El Chanate gold property in Sonora state, Mexico, from a subsidiary of AngloGold (AU-N).

The junior has been given a 90-day due diligence period in which to evaluate the property, as well as several other concessions in Sonora and Chihuahua states.

Previous work on the property, 25 km northeast of Caborca, included 199 drill holes. The deposit contains a resource of 35 million tonnes averaging 0.9 gram gold per tonne, or about 1 million oz. The stripping ratio is 1.4-to-1.

Vancouver’s Standard Mining (SDM-T) optioned the property earlier in the year under a similar arrangement. It chose not to acquire the property, saying it did not meet the company’s criteria. Standard did no drilling, though it did sample underground workings and old core.

Leadville also owns the Hopemore polymetallic property, in Colorado, where exploration drilling was conducted last summer.