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The El Tigre property is located in the Coastal belt of Peru where exploration is possible year round. El Tigre is an epithermal gold project where gold values from 0.5 to 9.5 gpt occur over a 2 km long target area.
The gold occurs in brecciated quartz veins, stockwork and silicified wall-rocks. Visible gold has been identified in petrographic studies.
Brecciated blocks indicate quartz veins of at least 2.5 metres in width and stockwork zones with a minimum of 8 metres in width. Gold mineralization
(0.3 to 0.5 gpt) also occurs with pervasive alteration in the coarser grained wall rocks.

Mineralization is considered to be low sulphidation (El Penon type). El Penon produces gold at $44 per ounce for Meridian Gold in Chile, which makes El Tigre an excellent exploration target type.

Michael Casselman, M.Sc., P.Geo., General Manager Exploration and Director of Candente and Joanne C. Freeze P. Geo. President, are the qualified persons (QP's) as defined by National Instrument 43-101 for the El Tigre project.




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Maps
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El Tigre Geology Map
El Tigre GeoChem Map
Interpretive Cross Section Through the El Tigre Property

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Photos
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El Tigre Property - Sorpresa Zone Drill Site
Tigre Property - Sorpresa Zone Breccia
El Tigre Property - Sorpresa Zone Breccia
El Tigre Torre Section

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Geological Summary

El Tigre is a maar/diatreme hosted low sulfidation epithermal system associated with gold-bearing heterolithic breccias and quartz veins. The center of the maar is covered by colluvium and appears not to have been deeply eroded. Most of the property including the center area of the maar and much of the periphery is unexplored or underexplored. Potential Jurassic aged targets include disseminated bulk tonnage, high-grade vein and breccia, and alluvial type deposits. Cretaceous or Tertiary alteration and mineralization of 'distal porphyry' type partially overprints the maar and associated gold mineralization. Numerous drillholes from the north and southwest margins of the maar intersected 0.30 g/t gold or greater (see appendix 1).

Location and Access
The prospect discussed in this report covers an area of approximately 3200 hectares (1295.50 acres) in the coastal belt of northern Perú and is located approximately 673 kilometers on bearing of north 30 degrees west from the city of Lima; in the Department of Lambayeque. The claims are located between UTM map coordinates: 9,251,000 and 9,259,000 meters north; and between 668,000 and 674,000 meters east and are centered at 06 degrees 45 minutes south latitude and 79 degrees 32.5 minutes east longitude. The claims are can be located on the Chongoyape Map Sheet 14-E.

Access to the property from Lima, is via the city of Chiclayo which is accessible by road, a 637 kilometer - 11 hour journey, or by daily airline flight to Chiclayo and then by road to the property-45 minutes. The total road distance from Chiclayo is approximately 20 kilometers.

Previous Work
The work done to date on the property is surface rock and colluvium sampling, drill testing exposed and unexposed anomalies at Torre/Sorpresa, drill testing float anomalies at the Leon prospect, a limited IP survey, and geologic mapping.

Prospect Types, Setting, and Ages of Mineralization
The property is host to four prospects and two apparently different ages of mineralization. The Leon, Sorpresa/Torre, and Mina Inca Antigua prospects are interpreted to be low sulfidation epithermal deposits of a Late Jurassic age (Lewis, 2001; Morche, 2001; Taipe, 2001). The Fortaleza prospect is a copper-gold anomaly hosted within a Middle-Late Cretaceous quartz-feldspar porphyry stock and has been classified as a weak or distal porphyry system although, no potassic alteration has been described (Chavez, 2001).

The Leon, Sorpresa/Torre, and Mina Inca Antigua gold prospects appear to be related to a maar volcano, which was active during the Jurassic and are hosted within the Oyotún Fm. The maar is believed to cover an area of at least 3.5 by 3.5 kilometers and gold mineralization has been found on the periphery of the complex. The preservation of lagunal sediments, tuff sequences, and endogenous andesite-dacite /rhyolite domes suggest that the maar has undergone minor erosion. Accretionary lapilli observed in the tuff sequences indicate that phreatic or phreatomagmatic eruptions occurred. The large size of the maar suggests the eruptions were phreatomagmatic.

The southern area of the maar (Sorpresa/Torre prospect area) was intruded by a granodiorite-dacite stock during the Middle-Late Cretaceous which appears to have cutoff some mineralization.

During the Tertiary the region was deformed into anticline-syncline pairs and the maar was tilted to the NE (dip is approximately 30°NE).

Mineralization Styles in Maars
Gold mineralization within maar settings includes disseminated, vein, and alluvial styles. Sillitoe (1985) suggests that in general gold mineralization is most likely to occur around the edges of and outside of a diatreme. However, he notes that mineralization does occur in the center of a number of maar settings.

Sillitoe et al, (1984) observed from the Wau Papua New Guinea deposits many features very similar to those observed at the El Tigre property. These include:

  • Multiple breccia events and types.
  • Similar stratigraphic sequences.
  • Vein, disseminated, and local alluvial gold mineralization.

Leon, Sorpresa/Torre, and Mina Inca Antigua prospects

Breccias Numerous breccias are associated with the maar. These breccias range from monolithic autobreccias related to the endogenous domes to heterolithic breccias associated with multiple brecciation events. The breccias are best known from the Torre/Sorpresa prospect where they have been mapped and drilled around the edge of the Cretaceous granodiorite-dacite stock.

Holes drilled at these prospects showed that the gold mineralization is hosted in the quartz veins and various breccias and not in the granodiorite-dacite stock (assays of the stock from the diamond drillholes run 12 to 39 ppb Au). Petrographic work by Leonor Ramirez (1998) on a breccia sample (DDH 22-98 at 168.5m with ~1.2gt/Au) indicates that native gold occurs as grains in both the matrix and clasts of the breccia. Drill core assays also confirm gold mineralization occurs within heterolithic breccias.

Representative hand samples of the heterolithic breccia from drill core show it to be matrix to clast supported with disseminated very fine- to fine-grained pyrite comprising 1-2% of the matrix. The composition of the subrounded to angular clasts is made up of volcanic rocks and milky quartz whereas the matrix appears to be composed of rock flour and clays. The breccia appears to have had little milling. One drillcore sample contained a single grain of visible gold.

Alteration is characterized by a widespread silica-sericite assemblage that varies in intensity. The mineralogy listed below is consistent with a low sulfidation type deposit. Thompson (1999) observed that "Clasts were veined and altered, prior to brecciation and to a second episode of alteration characterized by illite" which suggests a hydrothermal system comprised of multiple fluid pulses or a second mineralization/alteration event (see below).

Alteration Minerals
Sericte
Illite
Silica/quartz
Chlorite
Carbonate
Adularia

Sulfide Minerals and Native Element
Pyrite
Sphalerite
Galena
Chalcopyrite
Native gold
Stibnite

Mineralization at the Leon prospect is hosted within quartz veins in the Oyotún Fm. andesite (which has been described as an auto breccia by Taipe, 2001). Assay data from two reverse circulation holes drilled into float anomalies (TL-13 and TL-17; both at a -0.45 inclination) at the Leon prospect suggests that TL-13 intersected gold-bearing quartz veins. However, Tl-17 hosts gold mineralization of an unknown style (disseminated?) throughout the entire hole (the highest intercept was 1.7 Au/t over 1.5 meters). The other five drill holes appeared to have missed the mineralized area because they were drilled into float anomalies offset from the in situ veins. The in situ veins, which on the geologic map cover some 300-400 meters, have not been drill tested.

Alteration at the Mina Inca Antigua prospect is noted by Solitario (1998) to be similar to that in the Torre/Sorpresa area but smaller in area. Surface samples returned values up to 500 ppb gold. No other data is available.

Colluvium
Surface sampling at the Leon and Sorpresa/Torre prospects shows gold is present in the colluvium. The maar was believed to have undergone a period of subaerial erosion during the Latest Jurassic-Earliest Cretaceous before being covered by the Goyllarisquizga Gp. and appears to have been breached during the Tertiary.

Fortaleza Prospect
The second alteration and mineralization event that occurred on the property is the Fortaleza prospect. This event is interpreted to have occurred during the Middle-Late Cretaceous and it is associated with anomalous Cu-Au values. The quartz-feldspar porphyry (QFP) stock was altered and mineralized during this event. Inspection of a hand sample of this unit shows silica-chlorite±clay alteration with trace pyrite-chalcopyrite. Plagioclase feldspar appears variably altered to silica-clay and the hornblende has been strongly chloritized. Chavez (1999) observed well-developed sericite (phyllic) alteration along the contact with the Oyotún Fm. This suggests that the center of a hydrothermal system existed to the south of the Au mineralized veins and breccias.

Future Exploration
The central area of the maar and the colluvium has not been sampled or drill tested. The size of the maar and the elevated gold values suggests that a large hydrothermal system was active over a long period and that multiple gold mineralization events occurred within the maar. The poor definition of the maar edges and the covered center indicate that there is ample room for further exploration. The in situ veins on Leon prospect have not been drill tested. The Mina Inca Antigua prospect could either be within the maar or forms a distal deposit. If it were part of the maar it would indicate the maar is much larger than currently believed.

Geophysical surveys (i.e., magnetics) are recommended to identify the limits of the diatreme along with structural controls in order to guide future drilling on the property.

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