Category: Exploration and Development

Almaden Minerals Ltd. and its 100% owned Mexican subsidiary has learned that a lower court in Puebla State has ruled that Mexico’s mineral title system is unconstitutional because consultation is not required before the granting of mineral title. The lawsuit was filed against the Mexican government regarding claims originally held by Almaden which covered a large area including the Ixtaca deposit. This ruling can be appealed by both the Government of Mexico and Almaden. The Company believes that this lawsuit is part of a broad effort by special interest groups to change the mining law and there are other similar actions active across Mexico.

Octavio Alvídrez, Chief Executive Officer of Fresnillo plc, said: The decision to approve Juanicipio reflects the extensive work the JV partners have done to de-risk the project to meet stringent development criteria. This decision to invest demonstrates our confidence in the long-term outlook for mining in Mexico. The new mine will create significant employment and highlights our commitment to sustainable growth for the benefit of all stakeholders.

5,278 tonnes of ore processed, with 91.3% zinc to zinc concentrate recovery

3,855 tonnes of ore mined at 12.41% zinc, 1.46% lead

Development of 200m, Stope preparation on 972m RL Sublevel

Kootenay President and CEO James McDonald stated. This is one of two projects we acquired over the last year with the potential for the discovery of high-grade vein hosted deposits. Vein widths, strike extents and grades encountered to date along with lack of any previous drilling indicate excellent potential for resource discovery. We will continue to advance Copalito to the drill stage while at the same time preparing for the first drill program on the Columba silver project the second of the two new projects.

David Coburn, President and CEO commented, the approval by SEMARNAT is a significant step in advancing the exploration at the El Colomo Project and proving out the continuity of the gold mineralization from the Golden Zone in Nayarit to Las Margaritas in Durango, a distance of approximately 8 kilometres. The vein system at Las Margaritas has never been drill-tested and Gainey will be outlining a more detailed exploration/drilling strategy in the very near future.

Gernot Wober, VP Exploration states, Mapping and sampling of leakage mineralization typical of carbonate replacement deposits in surface outcrop continues to demonstrate strong potential for a robust CRD / skarn system at depth on our Minerva project. The high-grade tenor of the sample results in these anomalous areas is very encouraging. The surface results in conjunction with pending underground sampling results and the interpretation of a completed airborne geophysical survey will help finalize our phase 1 drill planning.