With a strategy of hiring local teams at each of its projects, South America focused junior Latin American Minerals has been able to tread softly into Colombia, Paraguay and Argentina, acquiring a portfolio of four promising properties.

In May 2008, staff writer Alisha Hiyate visited two of the junior's properties: the Rio Tendal VMS project, on the eastern edge of the Andes, in northwest Argentina, and the Paso Yobai gold project, in the weathered subtropics of Paraguay.

The potential at both projects is evident: Tendal is a historic mining camp and Paso Yobai has been the site of artisanal, small-scale mining for the better part of a decade. Now, Latin American Minerals is setting out to prove that potential -- sinking the first drill holes ever into both properties.

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