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Abstract
The Venaditas-Chapis claim group lies within the relatively newly recognized Zacatecas VMS district and is about 20 km from, and on trend with the Chilitos Formation hosted San Nicolas VMS deposit. San Nicolas is one of the largest VMS deposits (estimated reserves of 72 Mt at 1.35% Cu, 2.27% Zn, 0.53 g/t Au and 30 g/t Ag, and a copper-rich Lower zone containing a resource of 11.4 Mt grading 1.62% Cu and 0.48% Zn, (Johnson et al, 1999(i)) in the world currently being developed by owners Teck Cominco Ltd. and Goldcorp Inc. The Venaditas-Chapis area is located in an area deemed to be highly prospective for VMS mineralization. Other significant VMS deposits such as Bilbao and Francisco I Madero area also located proximal to the project area. The Venaditas-Chapis project covers approximately 3,900 hectares, and is located 60 km east of the city of Zacatecas, close to the town of Ojo Caliente. The claims cover primarily Jurassic/Cretaceous aged volcano-sedimentary rocks of the Chilitos Formation, host to the San Nicolas deposit, which have been intruded by Tertiary igneous bodies. The Venaditas-Chapis project also host potential for vein, stockwork and skarn type mineralization associated with Tertiary intrusions analogous to the Real de Angeles stockwork deposit located some 20 km east of the project area which hosted a mineral reserve in excess of 75 million tonnes of bulk mineable silver-lead-zinc ore.