Another News ReleaseThings just keep getting better
Exmin-Hochschild JV to Acquire the Santa Maria De Moris Mine 'Moris Mine' in the Moris District, Chihuahua, Mexico
CCNMATTHEWS
EXMIN Resources Inc.
July 19, 2006 - 10:28:28 AM
Exmin-Hochschild JV to Acquire the Santa Maria De Moris Mine 'Moris Mine' in
the Moris District, Chihuahua, Mexico
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews - July 19, 2006) - EXMIN Resources
Inc. (EXMIN) (TSX VENTURE:EXM) is pleased to announce that EXMIN's
wholly-owned Mexican subsidiary, EXMIN, S.A. de C.V. and Minera Hochschild
Mexico (MHM) have entered into an agreement to jointly acquire the Santa Maria
de Moris mine, at one time operated by Manhattan Minerals, if certain
conditions agreed upon by the parties are met. The Santa Maria de Moris mine,
a.k.a. the Moris Mine, is located in the Moris district of western Chihuahua
state, approximately 15 km west of the Ocampo mine, where Gammon Lake
Resources has a proven and probable reserve of 61.7 million tonnes with grades
of 1.19 g/t gold and 55 g/t Ag. The Moris Mine property land package is
contiguous with EXMIN's 100% owned Moris exploration project land package that
is subject to an earn-in option agreement with MHM.
EXMIN will own 30% of the project and MHM 70%. The mine property consists of
12 concessions that cover approximately 7,838 hectares (19,368 acres) in the
Moris district. These concessions include several contiguous concessions
around the Moris Mine and along strike with the main structural trend. The
mine property also includes several separate concessions in areas favorable
for exploration, including a strategic concession containing the extension to
the Tecolote vein system located on the La Fe concession that was previously
acquired by EXMIN (see Feb. 22, 2006 news release).
THE MINE
The Moris Mine was commissioned by Manhattan in 1997 and operated from May,
1997, until April, 1999, as a 3,000 ton per day heap leach operation. The mine
was shut down in 1999 due to low gold prices, but leaching continued for a few
months.
In 1999, after the mine had closed, measured and indicated resources were
reported as 4.05 million tonnes at a grade of 1.67 g/t gold and 5.79 g/t
silver, for a total of almost 220,000 contained ounces of gold and 750,000
ounces of silver. When production at the mine ceased in 1999, proven and
probable reserves were reported as 3.1 million tonnes at grades of 1.73 g/t Au
and 6.55 g/t Ag calculated with a gold price of $300 and a cutoff of 0.74 g/t
gold equivalent.
The owner of the mine, Minera Moris, S.A. de C.V. (Minera Moris), was
purchased after the mine's shutdown by Mexican investors. The mine has been
under the supervision of a caretaking crew since closed. Most of the
installations, including the crushing circuit, heap leach stacking system,
leach pads and metals recovery circuit are in reasonably good shape. MHM will
be project operator and an aggressive due diligence program, including diamond
drilling has already commenced. It is anticipated that the project will
benefit from the cost and technical data generated during the previous mining
operations.