- Retained 100% under Tara Minerals.
- Assessing options for advancement.
In July 2009, Tara Minerals Corp. announced the formation of a 100% owned US subsidiary named Adit Resources Corp. Adit’s Mexican subsidiary has the right to acquire a 100% interest in Picacho by making payments totaling $4,800,000, plus value-added tax of $720,000. An initial payment of $575,000 has been made. The remainder of the purchase price is payable in varying installments with a final payment of $3,507,500 due in 2012.
The Picacho Gold Mine is located within the Northern Sierra Madre Gold Belt, 120 kilometers south of the United States Border, in Sonora State, Republic of Mexico.
The Picacho mine, a 3,236 hectare mining concession, is 24km by haulage road from Bacoachi, a town with a population of approximately 2,000 people serviced by the national electrical grid, a 1,200m airstrip, a paved highway accessing the nearby mining town of Cananea and the State capital of Hermosillo.
The previous owners have been exploiting an up to 5 meter wide vein structure by driving a 5 meter by 5 meter ramp declining 8% extending over 1km in length. Production came from several working faces averaging 4 - 6 meters in width, dipping at 700, with very competent hanging wall conditions. The owner reported, and the company has verified, ore grades averaging 5 grams gold and 15 grams silver. The structure that hosts the mineralization is 85% silica creating a tailings product that can be sold as a flux agent to the local smelters for US$35.00/tonne, an amount that is estimated to generate sufficient revenues to cover current mining and milling costs. Management believes the ore body width, dip, and hanging wall competency will offer very good flexibility by allowing for a variety of mining methodologies that can be employed to contribute enhanced efficiencies and minimize pillar volumes and dilution.
The mine includes an extensive processing facility currently capable of 250 tonnes/per day of ore throughput. The mill includes a 1,500 tonnes/day jaw crusher, a 500 tonnes/day cone crusher, 2 ball mills, 2 floatation cells (400 tonnes/day), 2 caterpillar gen-sets and a large shop facility. The rolling stock consists of 3 Wagner ST8 scoop trams, a Gardner Denver 2 boom pneumatic jumbo, a stationary hydraulic exploration drill, 2 compressors, 2 Cat D8 and D9 dozers, a Clarke Michigan front end loader, 1 track loader, haul trucks and ancillary mining equipment. The equipment is in good serviceable condition.
Tara Minerals is assessing options for advancement. Sampling of old workings and the property has seen numerous core holes drilled on an 800 meter segment of the two km long Picacho vein. Four “ore-shoots”, spaced about 150 meters apart along strike, have been defined. Geologic inference and geophysical interpretation suggests that mineralization may continue along strike. Drilling along the Don Julian ore-shoot, which is estimated to be 12 meters thick, at least 150 meters wide along strike, and open to the northwest and downward, intercepted 11.28 meters grading 15.57 g/t Au and 32.4 g/t Ag.