A silver-dominant IOCG project at the centre of an established mining camp

An historical mining town

San Javier is an historical mining town located some 146 km east of Hermosillo in Sonora State, Mexico. The town was founded as an artisanal mining centre in 1706. The State and local area has a long history of economic prosperity resulting from mining activity.

Today, the San Javier Project, and the nearby San Antonio Project, have potential to become a new large-scale mining camp with a substantial mineral endowment containing significant quantities of gold, silver and copper. Geological models of ore genesis support silver-dominant IOCG deposit type potential.

Silver-dominant IOCG potential

A new understanding of geology at San Javier began during the summer of 2020. The Sapuchi–Cerro Verde mineralized trend is a 10 km trend of gold and copper mines which traverses the claims of three public companies: Canuc Resources Corp., Barksdale Resources Corp. and Osisko Development Corp.

In July 2020 Canuc geologists found sizeable breccia zones carrying silver, and assaying up to bonanza grades, in and around old mine workings. The high-grade silver was found within extensive magnetite mineralization on the eastern area of company claims, acquired by Canuc in October 2019. Previous owners had focused on anthracite mining and had not explored the claims for silver or other metals.

The discovery shifted the company’s exploration focus from high-grade silver vein exploration to silver-dominant IOCG deposit type exploration. A magnetic survey has provided clearly defined, large-scale magnetic targets coincident with artisanal silver mine workings and extensive silver-in-soil footprints.

Mining camp

Several companies have previously been involved in regional exploration in the historical mining areas of San Javier and San Antonio, including Servicios Industriales Peñoles, Phelps Dodge, Outokumpu, Constellation Copper, Red Tiger Mining, Barksdale Resources and Osisko Development.

In 2020 two public companies acquired mining concessions on either side of Canuc’s claims. Canuc’s holdings form a bridge between Barksdale Resources, covering 1,184 hectares on the western side, and Osisko Development, covering 11,338 hectares on the eastern side.

Today, San Javier represents potential for a mining camp consolidation spanning tens of millions of dollars of accumulated exploration expenditure and decades of infrastructure development.