Area Geology

The mineralization at Santo Domingo is contained in faulted 20 million year old volcanic rocks. After these rocks were mineralized they were overlain by basalt lavas. Santo Domingo and other epithermal vein-type deposits in the area are associated with extensive fracture systems. This setting is similar to deposits found in the Eastern Silver-Zinc-Lead Belt.


Behre Dolbear, an independent and internationally recognized mining consultant firm prepared a National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) Qualifying Report dated January 17, 2003 on the Santo Domingo Project. This Report, which confirmed the work Stroud carried out on the project, was filed June 3, 2003 and is available on www.sedar.com.

Geological Model

The geological model for the Santo Domingo project is the Cinco Minas deposit located 9.5 kilometres to the southwest of the Project. The majority of the silver and gold production from this mine took place in the 1920s. Fifteen million ounces of silver and 97,500 ounces of gold were produced from 1.2 million tons of mine ore, with recoveries of the silver and gold ranging from 88% to 90.5%. The main mineralized zone had a length of 550 meters and was mined to a depth of 700 meters.

Santo Domingo Mineralization

The mineralization on the Santo Domingo project is found within a series of banded and breccia-style (angular fragments in fine grained rock) epithermal quartz-carbonate veins, generally containing silver and gold with less than 2% copper and lead. The two main mineralized zones, known as the La Rayas and the Guadalupe, are situated in the centre of the property and dip 65 to 75 degrees northeast towards the river.

The La Rayas zone is generally 30-35 metres wide and has a known strike length of approximately 700 metres based on the presence of numerous pits and adits. The more recently discovered Guadalupe zone is sub-parallel to La Rayas and lies approximately 125 metres to the southeast. The Guadalupe zone has an observed width in excess of 10 metres, a known strike length of over 700 metres based on the presence of older adits and pits.