Guerrero Gold Belt

The Guerrero Gold Belt (“GBB”) is located in the State of Guerrero, Mexico, north of Acapulco City. It extends for at least 35 Km from southeast to northwest and remains open to exploration in all directions. The GGB today has an inventory of over 12 million ounces of gold. This inventory continues to increase with ongoing exploration and/or mine development by all participants currently active in the area. Newstrike's management team was instrumental in the discovery of over eight million of those gold ounces.

History

The GGB was originally defined by the political boundaries of the (former) Federal Morelos Mineral Reserve (the “Reserve”), a roughly 19 by 26 kilometre or 46,700 hectare area known for its historic small mining operations for “replacement bodies” with gold and “fissure filling” vein silver.

The Servicio Geologíco Mexicano (SGM) privatized the Reserve through public auction in 1998. Today it is controlled by Goldcorp Inc (Goldcorp), Teck Resources Ltd (Teck) (sale to Gleichen Resources Ltd in progress) and La Camera Mining Inc. (Camera) and is subject to a 3% net smelter royalty payable to the SGM. Prior to privatization several privately held internal claims were actively mined on a small scale for narrow vein silver and for replacement gold, including the Nukay and Vianay Mines. Two joint venture agreements were in place at the time, between Miranda Mining Corporation (Miranda) and Teck and between Industrias Peñoles S.A.B. de C.V. (Peñoles) and Newmont Mining Corporation (Newmont). These joint ventures explored Nukay, Filos and Bermejal prior to privatization. The first discoveries resulting from modern exploration methods were in 1987 with Peñoles-Newmont’s Bermejal project, and in 1997 with Teck-Miranda’s Los Filos project.

Following privatization in 1998, the former Reserve saw a significant increase in exploration over the next four years, leading to several new discoveries including Grupo Mexico’s Los Calles and Mina Verde deposits (now Camera Mining) and the El Limon and Los Guajes deposits operated under the Teck-Miranda joint venture (“JV”). The first mine went into production in 2008 at Los Filos project; a combination of the original Nukay, Filos and Bermejal discoveries after they were acquired by Goldcorp.

Exploration by Newstrike began in 2004 and continues to redefine the GGB as originally described by the limits of the former mineral reserve. The Ana Paula discovery owned by Goldcorp and discovered by Miranda in 1997, verifies the gold potential outside the former mineral reserve.

Goldcorp’s Los Filos Project in 2006. The Bermejal deposit is shown here

Newstrike’s Guererro Holdings

Newstrike controls a 100% interest in 81,330.04 contiguous hectares strategically located within the GGB. The company manages their land position under two contiguous projects, called Aurea Norte and Aurea Sur. The projects are divided geographically by the east-westerly trending Balsas River. Both projects have comparable geology with other deposits of the GGB.

GGB Projects Location Map
gold showings under active exploration or development

The area depicted in dark blue belongs 100% to Newstrike and forms the largest strategic land position within the GGB. The location of all known discoveries and GGB style mineral showings are shown as coloured circles. The red dots in the GGB - Geotectonic Terranes Map below locate the GGB style showings discovered on Newstrike’s property. A potential for VMS also exists in the area but is not the focus of exploration for Newstrike. Partners will be sought to explore this potential.

The Balsas River bisecting the district provides a more than ample source of water for mining activities. The region offers excellent infrastructure including water, hydroelectric power, extensive road system and a pool of skilled and unskilled labour.

Geology

The Guerrero Gold Belt extends for at least 35Km from southeast to northwest and remains open to exploration in all directions. The belt is defined by a northwest trend of intermediate to felsic intrusions that were emplaced into the sediments of the Guerrero-Morelos Platform about 65 million years ago. The gold belt is located near the edge of the platform where it comes into contact with the volcanosediments of the Teloloapan subterrain of island arc affinity.

The style of mineralization in the GGB is defined as a gold bearing iron skarn-porphyry mineralizing system generated during an Adakite intrusive event that emplaced a series of stocks, dikes and sills into the Guerrero-Morelos Platform near the western boundary with the Teloloapan Volcano-sedimentary Subterrain during relaxation of the compressional Late Cretaceous to Early Tertiary Laramide Tectonic Orogeny. The deposits of the GGB occur within a contact alteration halo formed about and within a series of intrusions of primarily tonalite, monzodiorite, and granodiorite composition. The primary intrusions of importance to mineralization are observed along a northwest-southeast trend that has become known as the Guerrero Gold Belt or GGB.

Gold bearing iron skarn and intrusion hosted disseminated gold have developed within structural or geological traps at or near the contacts with these intrusions. The hot hydrothermal fluids that emanated from these are believed to be the source of the gold mineralization. The GGB style of gold mineralization is associated with a contact metamorphic alteration assemblage that includes marble, hornfels, jasperoid, jasperoid breccias, magnetite skarn, garnet and pyroxene skarn and intrusion hosted stockwork, among other alteration types. It is these types of gold deposits that are the primary targets for all ongoing exploration and development within the GGB today. They have the potential to form large tonnage, bulk mineable low to medium grade gold deposits. Gold mineralisation typically develops at or near the contact of granitic intrusions emplaced within the calcareous sedimentary rocks of the Guerrero-Morelos Basin. High grade narrow vein polymetallic epithermal veins and volcanogenic massive sulphide mineralizing environments are also known to occur on the Company’s GGB mineral claims.