Prospecting Equipment

Soltera Mining Corp. (OTCBB:SLTA) has been busy acquiring properties during the first quarter of 2008. Unstable markets have been unable to dampen the resolve with which management goes about building shareholder value.

Three weeks ago, Soltera announced it had obtained two new Mexican gold properties through the acquisition of Aztek Mineral, S.A. de CV. One week after that, the vending in of the Eureka Copper-Gold property and joint venture with TNR Gold Corp. (TSX.V:TNR) was announced.

That brings to 4 the number of gold projects under development by Soltera, summarized as follows:

El Torno (Argentina, gold, mining rights 7,863 hectares) is located in the Andean Cordillera near the international border with Bolivia. The property contains a very large gold-bearing quartz vein that extends intermittently for at least 14 km long north-south. The vein is sub-vertical and the gold is concentrated in a 2 meter-thick breccia zone along its western flank.

Historically, El Torno was worked by the Incas and the Spanish over a long period and has more than 1,000 m of underground galleries. There is still a small-scale operation extracting gold from elluvial deposits on the east side of the vein. In 1997, Puma Minerals carried out 2,100 m of drilling on a 1 km length; and in 1999 Penoles Minerals (operators of the world’s richest silver mine and Mexico’s richest and largest gold mines) undertook surface sampling, geological mapping and an IP geophysical survey in the same area. The combined (non NI-43-101 compliant) results of this work showed:

a) El Torno is within a “gold province” that extends several hundred kilometers north-south through Argentina and Bolivia;

b) The strongly mineralized breccia zone on the west side of the vein carries up to 37 gpt gold in the tested area, and has potential for several million ounces along the length of the vein;

c) Samples of stockwork zones some distance from the main vein gave up 23 gpt and in one case 112 gpt gold;

d) There are several IP geophysical anomalies that could indicate mineralization, but have not yet been drilled.

Soltera holds almost all the 14 km length and commenced their exploration in late 2007 with a geochemical stream sediment survey combined with structural mapping designed to target specific parts of the vein and the surrounding area for more detailed investigation.

Soltera will now define drill targets using more detailed geochemical and geophysical surveys. Drilling is scheduled to commence in the second quarter of 2008 and, given success, this will lead immediately to a full feasibility study to commence before year’s end.

Real de Cananea, Mexico

The “Real de Cananea” (Mexico, gold, mining claims 1,030 hectares) is located in Sonora State 26 km from the Cananea copper mine owned by Penoles. It contains a gold-bearing fault zone up to 270 m wide and more than 400m long within Cretaceous volcanic rocks that are intensely altered and carry gold.

There is a small old mine in the center of the property that was probably first worked by the Mayas and certainly by the Spaniards, with several shafts reaching 100 m below surface. The hard wallrock was mined with enormous effort and this, together with the fact that water had to be transported 8 km, indicates the importance of the mineralisation. Gold is widespread on the property, with altered rocks showing up to 65 gpt.

Soltera’s target is a large-scale open-pit and the area is broad enough to accommodate well in excess of 1 million ounces. Geochemical, geological and geophysical surveys will be used to define drill targets and drilling is scheduled for the third quarter of 2008.

Eureka, Argentina

(Argentina, copper-gold, around 10,000 hectares) is located in northern Argentina near the Bolivian border and only 3 km from the El Torno project. The property contains ‘Red Bed’ type strata-bound copper mineralization within sedimentary sandstones, clays and conglomerates. The surface exposures are weathered and contain erratically distributed gold. Alluvial gold has been worked in the area since prior to the time of the Spanish arrival and there is an old mine with over 5 km of underground workings that exploited copper and gold on a small scale until 1987.

The deposit is similar in style to major copper deposits in the Bolivian part of the Tertiary Belt. A geological estimate in the late 1990’s (historic resources estimate which is not NI-43-101 compliant) was 50 to 60 million tons grading 1% copper. Only 70 meters of the 450 m deep formation has been explored to date which leaves extensive upside potential.

TNR Gold Corp. (“TNR”), a Vancouver based mining company listed on the TSX with extensive experience in Argentina, has entered into an option agreement with the option vendor to acquire a 75% interest in the property by spending a total of US$3,000,000 in exploration and option payments before April 20, 2010.

TNR will undertake detailed geological mapping, trenching, geochemical and geophysical surveys, sampling the historic underground workings and drilling. Soltera is not required to incur any expenditure on the project at the present time.

Casita Colorada, the Company’s other project in Mexico, is a large mineralized shear zone worked since the end of the 1800’s for gold. The mineralized zone was at least 400 m long and 150 m wide and there is potential for a substantial gold deposit, but the project is being held in reserve so that the company can concentrate on El Torno and Real de Cananea.

Be sure to keep a close eye on SLTA over the next couple months. Geochemical assay results are due any day now, and there’s plenty of news to be generated by exploration activity on all the properties.

gold metal detector

When Teryl Resources Corporation (TSXV: TRC, Pink Sheets: TRYLF) became interested in the Gold Hill Prospect near Bisbee, AZ, they were following a pretty strong lead – Historic Gold Hill, at a 5491-foot elevation, looks out for miles over the Warren mining district, a famously ore-rich region of the Southwest. Phelps Dodge Corporation’s Lavender Pit mine, only 4 miles to the west of the project, is one of the most productive copper mines in history, producing over 75 million tons of copper ore from 1954-70, and in excess of $1B in copper, gold, and silver.

Preliminary geophysical and geological testing on Teryl’s properties in the region has been promising, and the company has recently signed a contract to begin drilling.

Teryl Resources turned an eye to the Gold Hill prospect in the summer of last year, and a number of indicators immediately urged closer inspection. A report by Frederic Rothermel, PhD, outlined a pattern of mineralization that moved from copper-rich/gold-poorer at the centre of the system to gold richer/copper poorer at the fringes – this pattern is consistent with features of the Carlin Trend in Nevada, which contains over 100 million ounces of gold in proven and probable reserves. This zoning pattern at Gold Hill is unique to the Warren mining district. Geophysical parallels to Lavender Pit are numerous, and further geological testing revealed significant gold values and a copper presence of up to 3% in surface assays.

John Robertson, President of Teryl Resources since 1982 states: “The Gold Hill project is an area which may have the potential to be developed into a large lode-type copper deposit. Our geologist feels that the anomaly is similar to that of the Copper Queen deposit (Lavender Pit).” With regard to possible quantities on the property, according to Robertson, “The sky’s the limit.”

The geophysical parallels to nearby producers are strong and compelling, but there are indicators that this is an unusually rich deposit area for the region. “One of the interesting parts of the property,” says Robertson, “is that not only does it have very similar geophysical data (to the Copper Queen), but when the previous work was done on these targets from the Lavender Pit property and the Phelps Dodge properties, they didn’t get any surface assays – they drilled it based on geophysical data. With our particular property we actually got some pretty high-grade values on the surface, which is very unusual for that area.”

This indicates that the deposit could be even richer than the neighboring targets: “It’s a better target, when you have not only the geophysical targets, but the geochemical targets as well.”

Developing claims in an historic mining district has obvious infrastructural advantages: “(Gold Hill) is very close to previous producing mines, so there is the infrastructure there.”

The property at the Gold Hill prospect currently comprises 248 acres, and the company is actively acquiring an additional 640 acres as drilling begins.

“The time to really capitalize on a stock is before the drilling commences,” says Robertson, “Once Teryl starts drilling, then the anticipation of good results will increase the value of the stock. And if the results turn out to be positive, you could see the stock increase several-fold. The key time for investors to buy shares of a resource company is before the drilling program.”

Alaska

Teryl Resources is also a main property holder in the Fairbanks Mining Division in Alaska. The company holds interest in a number of properties in the region – the Gil, West Ridge, Fish Creek, and the Stepovich Properties – all of which are near or adjacent to Kinross Gold’s Fort Knox mine, the most prodigious gold-producing mine in Alaska, and the True North deposit, also owned by Kinross Gold.

Teryl has spent 1.6 million on exploration on the Gil property, and has defined a resource of 400,000 ounces of gold (10 million tons X 0.04 ounces per ton). The main zone that contains the resource reaches a thickness of 80 ft., and has been traced along a 2,500 ft. length.

The West Ridge property is 100% owned by Teryl, and anomalies of elevated gold in the soil show a presence of antimony and arsenic that is very similar to Kinross’ neighboring True North Deposit (which has a defined reserve of 616,000 ounces of gold at 0.046 ounces per ton gold). Thus far, Teryl has spent $350,000 on exploration of the property.

At the Fish Creek property – 50% owned by Teryl and adjacent to the north to the Gil property – an auger drill program has identified elevated gold presence that suggests that the Gil resource extends into the Fish Creek property.

“We also have some drill targets that we’re planning on drilling in that area,” comments John Roberston. Once deposits are defined, the ore will be readily processed at Kinross’ nearby mill.

Other Holdings

Teryl Resources also has joint venture silver properties, and ongoing revenue from oil and gas projects in Texas and Kentucky.

For more info: www.terylresources.com

This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.

gold dredges

Goldcliff Resources (TSX.V:GCN) assayed a trenching sample from its 100% owned Panorama Ridge project that returned a value of over 15 ounces per tonne of gold. The bonanza grade sample was assayed twice to confirm the result, which has validated the company’s theory that there would be high grade zones encountered throughout broadly disseminated lower grade host rock.

In the Hedley gold camp, the gold mineralization occurs in altered (skarn) sedimentary beds.

At Panorama Ridge,very little of the gold mineralization is visible native gold, even in the Bonanza Trench intercept. In order to have these bonanza gold grades, a gold-telluride compound mineral is thought to be related to the high-grade gold values. Goldcliff is researching the mineralogical possibilities to identify the mineral that is attributed to the high-grade gold values.

The Bonanza Trench, located at the south-western portion of the York-Viking zone, is a major gold discovery. The high-grade gold discovery at Panorama Ridge is comparable to the high-grade gold mineralization mined underground at the Nickel Plate Mine. The high-grade gold beds occur within an overall mineralized sequence that is up to 200 metres in thickness. The lower grade gold portions of this sequence were successfully mined by Mascot Gold Mines’ open pit operation.

The geological setting at Panorama Ridge is similar to these previously successful settings. Goldcliff has been targeting the bulk-tonnage potential of Panorama Ridge with success. The Bonanza Trench gold results confirm the high-grade potential of the property.

Meanwhile, trenching in the Nordic Zone at Panorama Ridge has expanded the area of previously determined mineralization by an additional 175 metres. The Nordic Zone and the York-Viking Zones are roughly 400 metres apart.

The Nordic Zone contains gold values averaging 1.30 to 2.32 g/t with higher grades ranging to 26.50 g/t.

Goldcliff will continue trenching throughout the 2008 exploration season, and will complete the rest of its 10,000 metre core drilling program.

Famous for gold since the first discovery in 1897, and once a thriving mining boomtown during the 1900s, Hedley was one of the great names in Canadian mining, and was named after Robert R. Hedley, manager of the Hall Smelter in Nelson, who had grubstaked many of the original prospectors.

Prospectors noticed coloured striations in the cliffs and recognized them as ore-bearing. Claims staked here were to expose one of the richest fractions in the history of mining in British Columbia. The mines were located high on mountaintops overlooking the town of Hedley below, and an aerial tramway 3 kilometres long had to be built to remove the ore.

The great northern railroad pushed through to Hedley in 1909, and the Nickel Plate mine continued to spew out rich ore at the rate of more than 50,000 ounces per year. The Mascot Fraction joined the action in 1936, to increase the total area production to more than 1.5 million ounces of gold and more than 4 million pounds of copper, significantly enriching the shareholders.

The Hedley Basin has had a long history of gold production (1904 to 1996) from the Hedley North mining district. During this period, 78,506,148 grams (2,524,313 ounces) of gold were produced from auriferous skarn deposits. The Nickel Plate and Hedley-Mascot mines produced more than 97 per cent of the gold from a single gold-skarn deposit (Nickel Plate deposit). Smaller production came from the French, Good Hope and Canty gold skarns. A small amount of gold production came from the Banbury quartz-carbonate veins (Maple Leaf and Pine Knot) located in Hedley Basin South.

The Mascot and Nickel Plate mines eventually fell under the ownership of Mascot Gold Mines Ltd, which traded from a start of $0.45 to a high of $20.63 on Tuesday August 4th, 1987.

Access to the Panorama Ridge property from Hedley is via Highway 3 by turning northeasterly onto the Old Hedley Road (Nickel Plate Mine Road) 2.5 kilometres east of Hedley. Alternatively, access from Keremeos or Penticton is via Highway 3A along the Green Mountain Road and the Apex Mountain Ski Hill Road. The Old Hedley Road public road passes through the northern portion of the property.

A number of logging and mining roads give excellent access to most areas of the property. The Winters Creek Forest Access road and their branches access the eastern and south eastern portions of the property. The West Cahill Forest Access Road accesses the western portion of the property (Skar prospect). The Good Hope Mine road accesses the south western portion of the property while the East Cahill Forest Access road accesses the Nordic, Spar, York and Slope prospects.

gold metal detectors

When Teryl Resources (TSX.V: TRC) announced the initiation of drilling on its Gold Hill copper-gold-silver project located near Bisbee, Arizona, investors familiar with the area sat up in their chairs. Their interest was piqued, firstly, because Gold Hill is four miles from Phelps Dodge’s Copper Queen/Lavender Pit Mine, which produced in excess of 75 million tonnes of copper, silver and gold ore between 1954 and 1974. Secondly, because surrounding mines in the Bisbee area have collectively produced more than $6 billion in metals over the past 100 years.

Teryl Resources’ President, John Robertson, who acquired the property, expounds a strategy for finding minerals that is simple, effective wisdom in the mining exploration industry. In Robertson’s words, “the key to discovering a good property, any mining property, is to drill near existing gold and copper properties. Always. You want to be in any area where there is known gold or known copper production.”

Given the setting, optimism about the geology at Gold Hill seems fair. The geological conditions suggest a large, disseminated deposit of gold and copper amenable to low-cost open pit mining. In one report, John Shanahan of Resourcex Group cited a geological report on the prospect, commenting, “a report by Frederic Rothermel, PhD, outlined a pattern of mineralization that moved from copper-rich/gold-poorer at the centre of the system to gold richer/copper poorer at the fringes — this pattern is consistent with features of the Carlin Trend in Nevada, which contains over 100 million ounces of gold in proven and probable reserves.”

Hopeful that the Carlin trend comparison is apt, Teryl is moving ahead with exploration on the property. Teryl has employed Diversified Drilling LLC to drill at least three holes on identified, high-grade, surface copper targets. Exploration completed on the project so far has included aeromagnetic survey interpretation and field examinations. This work, and a sampling program that assayed up to 2.54% copper, were used to identify the proposed Gold Hill drill locations.

The advantageously located prospect consists of seven claim blocks including Old Gold Hill, Superior, and Bastion Mines in the Warren Mining District, Arizona. Teryl has the right to earn 100% interest in the property subject to 10% net profit interest.

At all Teryl’s properties, Robertson, who boasts twenty-five years’ experience raising money for companies in the natural resources sector, uses the same recipe for success. “First, find the money for the company; then find an excellent property. Next we start a junior exploration program that we finance ourselves. Once we come up with some excellent results, we will continue to drill, raise more money and bring in a partner and they can develop it further.”

If he makes it sound simple, it’s because Robertson has done it before in both oil & gas and mining. In Alaska, Teryl is one of the largest property owners in the mineral-rich Fairbanks Mining Division.

Teryl has collected properties adjacent or close to Kinross Gold’s True North Property and Kinross’ Fort Knox Mine, the largest producing gold mine in Alaska. Teryl’s Gil property, a joint venture with Kinross, hosts a resource of 400,000 ounces of gold. True to Robertson’s strategy, after doing grass roots exploration on the property, Teryl entered into a joint venture agreement with Kinross Gold to further develop the resource.

Another of Teryl’s Alaskan properties, the 100% owned Westridge property has seen initial exploration including sampling. A news release dated November 2004 reported results that favorably compared the Westridge geology to that of other gold properties in the Fairbanks area. The finding “suggests that gold mineralization within the sample grid may be intrusive related, a similarity shared by several other intrusive-related gold systems the Fairbanks District.”

Teryl’s Fish Creek gold property, a 50% option from Linux Gold Corp, comprises 30 mineral claims adjacent to the Gil property. Teryl and Linux Gold recently announced the discovery of six new geophysical targets on the property. The two companies, according to a recent press release, plan to begin an exploration program at Fish Creek this winter.

The remaining Alaskan claim is the Stepovich silver claim adjacent to Kinross Gold’s Fort Knox Mine where Teryl has 10% net profit interest and Kinross owns 100% of the claims subject to Teryl’s 10% interest.

Finally, oil and gas prospects in Texas and Kentucky provide a financial foundation for Teryl. Robertson commented, “One of the core things for a junior company is cash flow to pay for their administration costs. So having oil and gas properties is helping the company having revenue.”

With crucial cash flow, and excellent projects underway in Alaska, Teryl Resources has turned its attention to Gold Hill in Arizona. Robertson doesn’t mince words about his intentions. “We have claims in properties that could evolve into a major mine because we’re near a major gold and major copper mine. We’re looking to find a major discovery and then we will probably joint venture with a major company and they will put it into production.”

With properties collected in both Fairbanks Mining Division and Warren Mining District, major mining companies close by and money for exploration, Teryl Resources seems to be making all the right moves to follow through on Robertson’s plan.

This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.

gold mining equipment

The hemorrhaging of stock values in the resource exploration sector, particularly gold stocks, is a direct result of the contraction of available capital at the center of the banking universe. The general sell-off in the market has trickled down to companies that have considerable amounts of gold in the ground, and these companies are a steal right now.

The gold price is starting to really gain traction with the broader market now, and the reasons for that have to do with the onset of economic recession.

Are we going into economic recession? In North America, the answer is “yes”. But globally?

Yes. Here’s why:

The worst piece of news last week, and the one that bodes most ill for the future, was the loss of 17,000 jobs in the United States. That is the first drop in 4 years, and confirms in the minds of many that the U.S. recession is now underway.

With the incessant write-downs of banks that have dominated the news for the last 5 months, one could be forgiven for failing to understand why anyone is surprised about the onset o recession, or why some don’t see it as inevitable.

Banks worldwide have suffered more than $135 billion in credit losses and write-downs, and some analysts estimate that the write-downs could total as much as $800 billion.

This is essentially the global banking system admitting to the public that it has overvalued the quality of the assets backing its loan portfolio. Since this is all essentially sub-prime mortgages on residential real estate, a lot of people, particularly in the United States, have been living way beyond their means, and a lot of the profit that has generated for companies is now going to evaporate as the system is forced to correct itself.

The effect of this contraction in global money supply is that real estate owners are forced to sell assets at whatever price they can get for them to cover inflated financing costs coincident with declining asset value. The owners we’re talking about here are homeowners and the banks who financed them.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), the world’s largest corporation and the Unites States’ #1 bank, wrote down the value of its portfolio by $18.1 billion. It chopped a total of 21,400 jobs in 2007, and subsequently sold 4.9% of itself to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for $7.5 billion and diluted itself again in January with an additional $12.5 billion in financing in a private offering.

And herein lies the great paradox. At the center of the financial universe, the nattily dressed and over-educated Wall Street boobs who have managed to engineer themselves into a Ph.D. level disaster have now sent out ripples amounting to the fire-sale of equities with real value represented by natural resource assets.

This means a buying opportunity for anybody with liquidity.

The forced sale of quality assets is amplified by the Sheep Effect.

Investors see the sell-off and think it’s a reflection of the value of the equities being sold, and in panic they dump whatever they’ve got fearing the worst.

And here we are. Mining and oil and gas stocks at ridiculously low prices, looking for a buyer.

China and India, and to lesser extent, South America and Russia, are widely expected to prevent the recession from growing to global proportions, but it is unlikely that this will be the case.

Yes, China is the manufacturing center of the universe, gobbling up a large percentage of the raw commodities that have powered the mining sector, and India too is in the midst of an infrastructure build-out unlike anything in its history.

But these two economies have grown on the back of a strong U.S. economy, and with the diminishing revenues from this source that are to result from the contraction of the U.S. economy, the impetus of China and India’s growth will also suffer.

Furthermore, and this applies to China more so than India, the U.S. Dollar’s diminishing value and its apparent tendency to try and spur growth through rate cuts resulting in further downward pressures on the dollar means that the US dollars held as foreign reserves are going to have a negative effect on the Chinese balance sheet.

So I think you’ll see growth slow around the world. Which means that its time to buy gold.

And sure, you can buy the metal, but as ever, and especially now, the real big wins will be made from juniors who have the goods. Past producers that shut down and sold during the depressed gold price of the late 90’s with ounces left behind are a safe bet.

Some great deals in the junior exploration sector?

Look at ATW Venture Corp. (TSX.V:ATW), who picked up the Burnakura Gold Mine for a song. The Burnakura Gold Mine consists of 58.8 square km of mining leases and prospecting licenses, a fully permitted 160,000 tonne per annum (450 tpd) CIL gold plant, rolling stock, underground equipment, workshops, office space and a 90 man camp. The project covers 12km of prospective strike length along a major auriferous shear zone and mesothermal gold system. Historic production on the project focused on lower grade surface oxides, which had been historically mined from 15 open pits stretching along the entire 12 km of strike length.

Another good choice: Animas Resources Ltd. (TSX.V:ANI) . This is company was put together in the summer of last year, and in short order has raised over CA$5 million and acquired to large land packages in Sonora, Mexico that includes the past producing Santa Gertrudis Mine containing a historic (non 43-101 compliant) resource of 720,000 ounces of gold. The advisory board and board of directors is made up of past senior management of Phelps Dodge, now part of Freeport McMoran (NYSE:FCX) , Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM), and Cominco. (TSX:TCK)

And last but certainly not least, Premier Gold Mines Ltd., (TSX.V:PG) formed after Wolfden Resources (TSX:WLF) spun its Ontario gold assets into the new vehicle in a dividend to existing shareholders of Wolfden. Premier is a joint venture partner with Goldcorp (TSX:G), and a major shareholder is Inmet Mining (TSX:IMN).

Premier has had many high grade intercepts of gold on its Red Lake properties, and is exploring a large portfolio of mostly advanced properties in Canada and Mexico. The company has CA$20 Million in cash on hand, and with 6 drills working in various locations, there will be no shortage of news to drive the share price in the right direction.

underwater metal detector