PROFILE Peter Holmes advances Chutine in Mexico

Interest in Mexico’s mineral deposits has surged recently after the country announced its decision to allow 100% foreign ownership of local companies for up to 12 years. The prospect of free trade among Canada, the U.S. and Mexico also persuades investors to study a geological environment that is still relatively unexplored.

Chutine Resources Chairman Peter Holmes, for one, has kept a watchful eye on Mexico for the past decade. Fluent in Spanish, he frequently visited Mexico while working in Arizona, 1981-86, for StanWest Mining, of which his father, Stanley, was president. In the 1970s and early ’80s, Peter Holmes was involved in other mining projects headed by his father in Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Italy.

Last year Holmes joined Chutine’s senior management. “The company was presented to me with Mexican assets, San Antonio in particular, in November, 1989,” he told The Northern Miner in a recent interview. “Geology and infrastructure are there. Metallurgic mineral zonation is classic for a porphyry deposit.”

At present, production at the San Antonio mine property in the Mexican state of Sonora has been put on hold, says Holmes, as Chutine is negotiating a US$23-million program to build a heap leach op- eration. It would produce 17,000 lb. per year of cathode copper at 37 U.S. cents per lb. “The mine will resume production 12 months after the financing is completed and the construction starts. The company will turn out the finished product on site. No smelter will be needed.”

As well, Chutine has entered into a joint venture with American Barrick Resources to explore the Amelia claims, also in Sonora. The partners are looking for a deposit that matches Barrick’s Goldstrike mine because Sonora, says Chutine, “has geological characteristics similar to the Carlin Trend of Nevada.”

At 34, Holmes is interested in skiing although work is his avocation. He and his wife, Janet, have two children.

With its major assets in Mexico, Chutine plans to maintain a high profile in that country. “No environmental hearing is required there,” says Holmes. “A lot of potential is awaiting exploration.”