Tepal project
- Commodity:
- Gold-Copper
- Location:
- NW Michoacán, Mexico
- Nearest City:
- 170 km south of Guadalajara, 18km south of the Jalisco State border
- Infrastructure:
- Excellent with paved roads and low topography
- Utilities:
- Water, power, deep sea port access at Manzanillo and Lazaro Cárdenas.
- Labour:
- Experienced technical Mexican geologists and local labor
- Communities:
- Town of Tepalcatepec, 15.5 km from the Tepal project
- Size:
- 3,321 Ha
- Stage:
- A Mineral Resource Estimate has been completed (December 2024)
- The Tepal project is located in the state of Michoacán, Mexico, a short distance from the Jalisco State border, lying roughly equidistant between the two international commercial sea ports of Manzanillo and Lazaro Cárdenas and the international Airports of Manzanillo and Guadalajara, a city of 5 million people.
- The project is a 15-minute drive via paved highways and well maintained ranch roads from the commercial centre of Tepalcatepec (municipality population 45,000).
- The region has a history of established international scale agribusiness and has a long history of local independent mining operations, both indicative of a supportive community and social relationship.
- The project area has excellent infrastructure and a work pool of highly trained technical talent and local labor.
- Defiance owns 100% of the Tepal Project.
- Tepal was originally acquired by Defiance through a merger with ValOro Resources in 2018; ValOro was previously known as Geologix Explorations.
- The results from 443 holes totaling over 82,895 meters of core and reverse circulation drilling has delineated the North, South, and Tizate zones and all have been included in the new Mineral Resource Estimate.
- Metallurgical testing indicates recoveries of 86% Cu and 54% Au for the North/South Zones and 84% Cu and 50% Au for the Tizate Zone mineralization which would produce a 23% Cu copper concentrate with gold credits.
- Past exploration focused on bulk porphyry-style mineralization but recent work indicates the presence Au-Ag epithermal feeder zones that remain largely untested.
- Mineralization follows these newly identified structural controls and feeders whose strike and depth potential remain unexplored.
- There is potential to defining more mineralization by drilling along strike and dip, with potential to improve grade within the existing mineralized body by angled drilling of high angle structures.