Chaparra Project

Chaparra, 4,520 hectares in 9 mining concessions.

Absolut Resources has entered into an exclusive option agreement to acquire a 100% stake in Compañia Minera Colorado S.A.C. (CMC), a privately held Peruvian company that has an option to purchase 100% of the Chaparra project. Upon exercise of the option Absolut will issue 100,000 shares of Absolut Resources stock to CMC directors and pay US$ 600,000 over a four-year period. CMC has an exclusive option with a third party to purchase 100% stake in the Chaparra project buy paying US$ 1,450,000 over a four-year period, and a 1% NSR that is capped at US$ 1,000,000.

The Chaparra mining district is located along the coast of southern Peru 600 km south of Lima in the Nazca-Ocoña gold belt. The Eureka claims are located 45 km inland from the coastal town of Chala on a graded road that follows the Rio Chaparra valley. The property is 4km north of the town of Chaparra. The project is situated an elevation between 1,400 and 2,800 meters.

Chaparra Location Map
(click to enlarge)

Chaparra Section Map
(click to enlarge)

The Eureka claims are located 45 km inland from the coastal town of Chala on a graded road that follows the Rio Chaparra valley. The property is 4km north of the town of Chaparra. The project is situated an elevation between 1,400 and 2,800 meters.

The Chaparra project is a mesothermal gold-quartz vein system hosted in the Cretaceous Coastal Batholith. The project lies within the Nazca-Ocoña gold belt that is characterized by late Cretaceous granitic rocks of the Arequipa segment of the Coastal Batholith. These granitic intrusives commonly host quartz veins locally containing high-grade gold and copper mineralization. Regional east-west trending, left-lateral faults commonly control the gold mineralization at many important deposits, including Calpa, Ishihuinca (Noble and Vidal, 1994), and Acari.

The Chaparra project was put into production in the 1930’s by an American company that exploited the oxide portion of the El Cambio vein.

The project has been evaluated by several exploration mining companies over the past decade. Geological mapping and sampling have been conducted by Buenaventuras Ingenieros S.A. (BISA), 1989; Newmont Peru Ltd., 1994; North Compañia Minera, 1997; Meridian Gold, 2001; and ABX (Barrick) as recently as October, 2001. In 1995, El Misti Gold completed a reverse-circulation drill program of 5,410 meters in the El Gallinazo zone focused along a high-grade structure through a zone of disseminated mineralization.

Minera Colorado began small scale production in 2001, mainly from the El Cambio vein with minor production from the Blanca vein. As of July 2003, Minera Colorado has produced 826 tons averaging 14.9 g/t gold.

The major veins in the Chaparra area are hosted by a suite of intermediate intrusive rocks of the Coastal Batholith and range in composition from diorite to quartz monzonite. The veins trend N450W to N650W with dips ranging from 45 to 75 degrees. Vein widths range from 0.30 to 6 meters. Mineralogy consists of quartz-carbonate-sericite-pyrite + Chalcopyrite-gold. Anhydrite is a common gangue mineral. Surface oxidation extends to a depth of approximately 50 meters.

Structural Geology Study (PDF 25.3Mb)

Wall rock alteration along veins consists of a narrow selvage zone of propylitic alteration (chlorite, epidote, quartz) less than a meter wide. Zones of argillic alteration are found primarily in wider, more structurally complex zones within principal vein structures.

Regional Geology

There are eight major veins on the property and include the El Cambio, Rinconada, Escondido, Victoria, Verdosa, Blanca, Encantada, and Chapi.

The El Cambio (Figure 2) is the major producing vein in the area. The vein is oriented east-west and can be trace on surface for a strike length of approximately 2 km and over a vertical extent of 400 meters. The vein dips on average 450. Vein widths vary from 0.5 to 2.5 meters. Parallel veins were observed in a portion of the underground workings. Initial sampling by Absolut of the underground workings on the El Cambio vein has returned 52 meters at 13.3 g/t gold with an average vein width of 1.5 meters and 32 meters at 7.3 g/t with an average vein width of 1 meter.

Long Section El Cambio Vein				Long Section Looking North
El Cambio Veins				Encantada Vein
Section C-C'				Section C-C'

The Rinconada vein is traceable on the surface for approximately 650 meters and a vertical extent of 250 meters. The vein and alteration selvage is about one meter wide and is fairly consistent. The quartz vein itself varies in width from 0.6 to 1 meter. Third party samples collected from the underground workings ranged from 9.74 from 17.50 g/t Au.

The Victoria vein strikes east-west and can be traced for over 1,000 meters on surface. The oxide portion of the vein was exploited in the 1930’s. The stopes are up to 4 to 5 meters wide and at least 40 meters high. The vein zone exposed in the workings was approximately 2 to 2.5 meters wide with 3 parallel quartz veins. MCC briefly mined this vein in 2002. They produced 15.2 tons of ore that averaged 11.52 g/t Au, and ranged from 3.48 to 22.23 g/t.

The Encantada vein is sub-parallel to the Rinconada vein for approximately 500 meters. The vein and selvage vary in width from approximately 1.5 to over 6 meters. The vein is currently being worked by informal miners who report gold grades from the quartz vein of up to 150 g/t (values determined by panning crushed vein material).

Limited production from the Blanca veins averaged 0.52 g/t gold.

Chaparra hosts eight highly prospective mesothermal gold-quartz veins with an aggregate strike length of 8.8 km that occur between 1,400 and 2,800 meters indicating excellent potential for mineralization along strike and at depth. Limited production from Minera Colorado, artisanal mining, and initial sampling by Absolut indicates that gold grades average greater than 12 g/t gold. Absolut feels the project has the potential to host significant gold mineralisation amenable to underground mining methods.