HISTORY

The San Anton Property lies within the old gold-silver mining district of San Anton de las Minas, a mining district lying roughly parallel to the better-known Guanajuato Mining District some 23 kms to the southwest.  Exploration and mining in both districts has historically focused on finding and exploiting high grade epithermal veins.  Commencing with the discovery at Guanajuato on 11 June 1548 of rich silver bearing quartz veins known as the ‘Veins of Light”, the state of Guanajuato ultimately became the third largest silver producer and sixth largest goldfield in Mexico.

The San Anton de las Minas Mining District is reported to have had large but unknown quantities of gold and silver production dating from Spanish colonial times.  Although local townspeople claim that the mines such as Providencia, Campa, Santa Catalina and Ave de Gracia have been worked since the 1700’s, there is no known record of their past production and they are now abandoned. 

There are numerous shafts, adits, pits and other superficial workings along the three main structural trends in the vicinity of Cerro del Gallo that attest to past mining activity.  None of this prior mining activity is believed to have exceeded a depth of about 90m. 

Mining activity at San Anton de las Minas for which physical records exist dates back to the 1860’s.  Numerous national and international companies commenced operations in the Property area during this time, focusing on the gold-silver veins of Providencia, Carmen and Ave de Gracia.  The preservation of the historic stone ruins of the processing plant and shaft at San Anton de las Minas assists with dating the more concerted mining activity.  Mining ceased around 1910 due to the onset of the Mexican Revolution. 

There has been intermittent small scale undocumented production throughout the 20th century.  In the mid 1970’s, the Consejo de Recursos Minerales (CRM) declared a national mineral reserve that covered the mining claims over the Providencia-Carmen vein systems.