Alturas Minerals Corp. (the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:ALT)(LMA:ALT)
is pleased to report that the two option agreements with Sociedad
de Inversiones Gema Limitada ("Inversiones Gema" or the "Owner"), a
Chilean mining exploration company, to acquire 100% of its Marilin
and Quispe gold-(+/-copper) projects have been formally registered
at the Mining Conservator ("Conservador de Minas") of Copiapo and
Diego de Almagro jurisdictions in northern Chile.
Miguel Cardozo, President & CEO of Alturas commented that
"The Marilin and Quispe projects represent a very important
development for the Company in Chile, one of Latin America's
premier mining jurisdictions. Alturas has now consolidated a
high-quality project portfolio in the mineral-rich Maricunga belt,
which hosts over 92 million ounces of gold and 13 billion pounds of
copper in known resources, and we have completed a first successful
geological and geochemical study of both projects with positive
results that merit follow up work to define drill targets".
Option Agreements
Under the terms of previously signed letters of intent, Alturas
had paid the sum of US$5,000 to Inversiones Gema upon the execution
of each of the LOIs (US$10,000 in total) on May 30, 2012 and has
completed a technical and legal due diligence, after which signed
formal Option Agreements with Inversiones Gema to acquire 100% of
the Marilin and Quispe properties and paid the sum of US$25,000 to
Inversiones Gema upon the execution of each the option agreements
(US$50,000 in total). Alturas has now received formal confirmation
that the agreements have been validated and registered at the
corresponding registries in the Mining Conservator of Copiapo and
Diego de Almagro and are therefore fully in force.
If Alturas decides to execute any or both of the Option
Agreements, the Company will have the option to acquire the
projects over a term of four years by making staged cash payments
to the Owner for a total of US$3.325 million for each of the
projects (US$6.65 million in total if both option rights are
exercised) over the four year period. Once Alturas exercises the
option and the mining properties are transferred to Alturas, Gema
will also be entitled to receive a 1.5% NSR royalty payment once
commercial production starts in any of the mining properties.
The Maricunga gold-copper Belt
The Maricunga Gold Belt extends approximately 150 kilometers
north-south and 30 kilometers east-west, straddling the border
between Chile and Argentina. The mineral deposits hosted are often
very large, low-grade porphyry gold (+/- copper) type. The
Maricunga belt hosts over 92 million ounces of gold and 13 billion
pounds of copper in resources, including ore deposits such as
Jeronimo (3.4M oz Au), Chimberos (30.0M oz Ag), La Coipa (4.9M oz
Au eq), Maricunga (3.6M oz Au), Marte-Lobo (6.9M oz Au), La Pepa
(3.4M oz Au), Volcan (8.9M oz Au), Refugio (10.4M oz Au), Caspiche
(26.4M oz Au and 6.7B lb Cu), and Casale (25.9M oz Au and 6.8B lb
Cu).
The Marilin Gold-(+/-Copper) Project
The Marilin project is located 95km ENE of the Copiapo city at
an altitude of 3,650 meters above average sea level, and is
accessed through a dirt road extending from Puquios until Vegas La
Junta. The total size of the mining properties included in the
agreement is 1,600 hectares but, due to the overlaps with
underlying properties, the actual area available to Alturas is
expected to have a size of between 800 and 1,200 hectares, which
will be confirmed by the ongoing due diligence and surveillance on
the mining titles.
The geology is dominated by a quartz-porphyry of granodioritic
composition intruding a volcano-sedimentary sequence. Both rock
types are affected by silicic-argillic alteration (including
kaolin, alunite and phillic assemblages with disseminated
sulphides) and peripheral propilitic alteration. High-grade gold
veins containing 10 to 100 g/t gold have been historically mined by
artisanal miners in the northern part of the property. The porphyry
shows zones with mutiphasic and stockwork-type quartz-veinlets and
hydrothermal breccias, both with sulphides and Fe-oxides containing
0.5 to 1.0 g/t gold (as reported by Inversiones Gema). Besides gold
anomalism, silicic-argillic altered rocks show silver values around
110 g/t and copper contents between 150 and 400 ppm.
The Quispe Gold-(+/-Copper) Project
The Quispe project is located 165 km NE of the Copiapo city and
45km NE of the town of Inca de Oro at an altitude of 3,450 meters
above average sea level and is accessible by a dirt road from Inca
de Oro until a point within 3km of the project area. The total size
of the mining properties Quispe 2 to 9 is 1,510 hectares but, due
to the overlapping with underlying properties, the actual area
available to Alturas is expected to have a size of around 1,120
hectares, which will be confirmed by the ongoing due diligence and
surveillance on the mining titles.
Both the high-grade material (greater than 100 g/t Au, greater
than 3% Cu, greater than 50 g/t Ag selected ore) found in the
artisanal mine workings and other mineralization reported from the
area correspond to the uppermost, epithermal part of a porphyry
system, partially covered by volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The
exposed part of the mineralized system covers a 2km2 area
comprising high-grade epithermal veins, hydrothermal breccias,
stockwork-veining and porphyry bodies with intense silicic-argillic
alteration. Epithermal mineralization occurs within a 400m-long by
10 to50m-wide zone, and mine workings reach a depth of 60m,
bottoming in mineralization.
Seven rock samples have been reported by Inversiones Gema. Three
of them (M1, M2 and M3) taken from the epithermal area that was not
previously uncovered by artisanal miners reported 0.46%, 1.70% and
0.23% copper and 125.9 g/t, 37.7 g/t and 9.1 g/t gold,
respectively. One sample (M7) was taken by Inversiones Gema from
the old mine workings and reported 6.25% copper and 32.8 g/t gold.
The mineralization in these workings extends vertically for at
least 40-60 meters, containing bornite, calcosite and chalcopyrite.
Another sample (M6) corresponds to the altered porphyry and has
reported 6.25% copper and 1.2 g/t gold and two other samples (M4
and M5) came from outcrops with copper oxide mineralization
reporting 5.12% and 1.62% copper and 3.6 g/t and 9.0 g/t gold,
respectively.
About Alturas Minerals Corp
Alturas is a Canadian corporation, and is the indirect parent of
the Peruvian company, Alturas Minerals S.A. ("Alturas Peru") and of
the Chilean company, Alturas Chile Limitada ("Alturas Chile").
Alturas Peru has been exploring various mineral projects in Peru
since January 2004. Alturas Chile initiated exploration activities
during the second quarter of fiscal 2010. Alturas' exploration
strategy is focused on the discovery of large copper-gold
porphyry/skarn deposits and epithermal gold mineralized
deposits.
The principal assets of Alturas are one project in drilling
stage Chapi Chapi-Utupara, and five drill-ready mineral exploration
projects located in Peru and Chile, including the Sombrero,
Huajoto, Ccaccapaqui and Pampa Colorada projects in Peru, and La
Corina property in Chile. Alturas entered into a revised agreement
on its Pampa Colorada property with Origen Group S.A.C. and into an
option agreement on its Ccaccapaqui project with Compania de Minas
Buenaventura S.A.A. (see press releases dated January 5th, 2012 and
January 31st, 2012, respectively). In addition, Alturas Peru has
interests in three other less-advanced exploration projects in Peru
(Callejones, San Antonio and La Divina).
About Alturas's QA/QC Procedures
Strict sample integrity is maintained throughout the geochemical
sampling program. The bagged samples are transported by Alturas
staff to the city of Abancay in South Peru where they are shipped
directly to Inspectorate Services Peru SAC Labs in Lima.
Inspectorate is an ISO 9001:2000 certified laboratory that is
preparing for ISO 17025 accreditation. At the Inspectorate's Lima
facility, all samples are dried then crushed to 90% -10 mesh (less
than 2mm) size; then riffle split to obtain an approximately 200
gram subsample. The subsample is further crushed to 95% -200 mesh
(less than 75 microns) to obtain a 100 gram split ready for
analysis. All samples are routinely assayed for gold by
conventional fire-assay methods at Inspectorate's Lima facility,
and for 34 additional elements (including silver, copper, lead,
zinc) using aqua regia acid digestion followed by Inductively
Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy ("ICP-AES") analysis.
Alturas follows a rigorous QC/QA program, including routine
insertion of standards and blanks as well as assay of duplicate
samples at other independent laboratories. Certified standards, of
known gold grade are inserted "blind" every 20th sample as an
independent check on assay accuracy.
As required by the National Instrument 43-101, Alturas's
designated Qualified Person for the supervision of exploration of
the projects is Dr. Paul Pearson, F. AUSIMM, who has reviewed the
technical information reported in this News Release.
Should you wish to receive Company news via email, please email
investor@alturasminerals.com and specify "Alturas News" in the
subject line.
Cautionary Language and Forward Looking Statements
This press release may contain "forward-looking statements",
which are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results and future events to differ materially from
those expressed or implied by such statements. Investors are
cautioned that such statements are not guarantees of future
performance and results. Risks and uncertainties about the
Company's business are more fully discussed in the Company's
disclosure documents filed from time to time with the Canadian
securities authorities.
The TSX Venture Exchange and the Bolsa de Valores de Lima do not
accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this
release.
Contacts: Alturas Minerals Corp. + 51-1-372-3739 (Lima, Peru) +
1-416-363-4900 (Toronto, Canada)investor@alturasminerals.com
www.alturasminerals.com Alturas Minerals Corp. 67 Yonge Street,
Suite 1102, Toronto, ON Canada M5E 1J8 Alturas Minerals Corp. Av.
Del Pinar 180, Suite 804, Chacarilla del Estanque, Lima 33,
Peru