Mexico’s proposed higher mining royalties could block nearly $7bn in investments
The Mexican government proposed raising mining royalties under the argument that metal prices have risen in recent years.
Vancouver-based ML Gold Corp.(TSXV: MLG) announced that is has started a winter drilling program on the Stars property, located 40 kilometres south-west of Houston, British Columbia. The company acquired the mine in November from Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. and Divitiae Resources.
In a press release, ML Gold informed that it has mobilized a diamond drill rig and drilling is underway. The program consists of 2,500 metres of drilling in five to six drill holes designed to test copper-gold-silver-molybdenum mineralization identified at and near surface to depth. The two main zones where drilling is permitted were first discovered in the late 1990s when new logging roads were being constructed in the area.
Stars lies within a porphyry belt that passes through central B.C. Thus, ML Gold says it hosts highly anomalous chargeability over an area of at least 3 by 4 kilometres and is open in multiple directions. “Extensive copper mineralization is visible where the bedrock outcrops through the glacial cover in the low lying areas. Of only 9 historic shallow holes drilled on the property, one ended in 0.56% copper at only 110 metres, and another over one kilometre away returned 142 metres @ 0.25% copper,” the firm stated in the media brief.
The miner is convinced that there is a high probability that deeper drilling will identify a vertically extensive mineralizing system, which would explain the chalcocite-bornite-chalcopyrite observed at and near surface.
The property is also located 30 kilometres northwest of New Nadina’s Silver Queen property, whose mineralization falls within a string of deposits and past producing mines including Goldcorp’s Equity Silver mine which produced over 77 million ounces of silver, 500,000 ounces of gold, and over 80,000kg of copper.
