Quick to recognize that the 1990s would be a time of major political and economic reform in Argentina, Yamana Resources (TSE) quietly began acquiring mineral properties in four areas throughout the country.
In Salta and Catamarca provinces in the Andean Cordillera, Yamana holds the exploration rights to 16 properties totalling 110,090 hectares. The holdings cover extensive zones of hydrothermal alteration situated along a broad belt of gold occurrences which stretch southward from Bolivia along the Chilean-Argentine border.
Reconnaissance work on these properties indicates they are highly prospective for both epithermal gold and porphyry-style deposits. Mapping and sampling are under way on nine of the projects.
Yamana is involved in a joint venture with Australian-based MIM Exploration to explore and develop some 12 properties in Neuquen province, within Northern Patagonia. The properties cover several sandstone-hosted copper oxide deposits which can be processed using solvent
extraction-electrowinning. The largest deposit is the Barda Gonzalez, which contains minable reserves of 17 million tonnes grading 0.5% copper. MIM can earn a 50% interest in the properties by spending US$2.5 million on exploration, making option payments of US$750,000 and completing a feasibility study by September, 1995. A major exploration program, which includes 27,000 metres of drilling, was undertaken earlier this year. In nearby Mendoza province, Yamana has formed a joint venture with American Resource (NASDAQ) on a large, bedded, sulphur deposit. Since there is no domestic source of sulphur in Argentina, this project could supply elemental sulphur for the production of sulphuric acid used in copper and fertilizer operations.
Exploration is also under way on the company’s 15 properties in Santa Cruz province, within Southern Patagonia. These holdings are in the Vanguardia mining district, which is expected to emerge as one of the premier precious metal districts in Argentina. Work to date has identified at least five drill targets associated with highly prospective gold-bearing epithermal centres. Near the southern coast of Tierra del Fuego, Yamana holds the exploration rights to 74,750 hectares. Most of the rights are in the Fin del Mundo mining district, which hosts a 30-km-long belt with hydrothermal alteration, geophysical and geochemical anomalies, and outcrops of massive sulphides. Samples taken from a 200-metre-long zone of outcropping sulphides returned values of up to 1.45% copper, 7.13% zinc and 1.64% lead, plus 48.4 grams silver and 0.21 grams gold per tonne, over an average width of 3.4 metres. Noranda (TSE) can earn a 60% interest in the properties by spending $5 million and performing a feasibility study over seven years. Yamana, as joint-venture operator, has initiated a program of mapping, geochemical sampling and geophysical surveys. Diamond drilling is planned for April.
The junior was created through a reverse takeover of Wiscan Resources by Minera Yamana, a privately owned company.
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