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.
Seabridge Gold of Toronto has defined a new gold-copper porphyry target at its Iskut property 110 km northwest of Stewart. The target is a large intrusive system at relatively shallow depth in a geological environment remarkably similar to the company’s KSM project about 35 km to the southeast.
The new target is probably responsible for the Quartz Rise lithocap. This year Seabridge conducted 3-D IP surveys, a 260-line km of high resolution magnetic surveys, and 184 surface samples to define the Quartz Rise. The lithocap has been substantially eroded, but it contains clasts of porphyry style vein fragments. This is taken to mean there is an underlying porphyry source for it, said the company.
Seabridge chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk said, “We acquired Iskut because we saw clear evidence of a large porphyry system which looked to be similar in age and geology to our KSM project 30 kilometers to the east.”
Having refined the location of the porphyry target, an aggressive drilling program is being planned for next year.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)
