PROJECTS - Patagonia
Exeter Partners with Cerro Vanguardia in Patagonia, Argentina
Introduction
Exeter has an option agreement with Cerro Vanguardia S.A. (CVSA) to acquire the rights to all CVSA'S exploration projects, except those surrounding its Cerro Vanguardia gold mine in Patagonia, Argentina. The agreement provides Exeter with a unique opportunity to explore and develop an entire suite of partially tested gold properties in a very promising, yet little explored mineral district of South America. CVSA is owned 92.5% by AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AngloGold) and 7.5% by Fomicruz S.A., the Santa Cruz provincial mining company.
Yale Simpson, our Chairman comments: "The agreement with Cerro Vanguardia will establish Exeter as one of the most active exploration companies in Argentina. The relationship is strategic, giving Exeter a series of exploration opportunities in southern Argentina that otherwise would not be available to a junior explorer."
Tenure
Most of the subject properties were acquired originally by CVSA in the early to middle 1990s - relatively early in the mineral exploration of Patagonia. The properties cover a total area of 1047 square kilometres in 39 individual tenements. The agreement groups the properties into four projects:
| Cerro Moro | 13 properties | 153 sq.kms. |
| Other Santa Cruz properties | 4 properties | 176 sq. kms. |
| Chubut properties | 10 properties | 135 sq. kms. |
| Rio Negro properties | 4 properties | 171 sq. kms. |
Location of Santa Cruz Projects including Cerro Moro
Location of Chubut Projects
Location of Rio Negro Projects
CVSA acquired the properties primarily to search for gold mineralisation similar to that now being mined at Cerro Vanguardia (mineable reserve reported to be 9.1 million tonnes at a grade of 10g/t Au and 113g/t Ag). CVSA was one of the first companies to select ground in the region using enhanced Landsat imagery to define hydrothermal alteration commonly associated with high and low sulphidation gold deposits.
AMEX : XRA TSX Venture : XRC FRANKFURT : EXB