Building Paraguay’s First Gold Mine

Paraguay is located in the centre of South American between Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina. The country is governed by a democratically elected parliament that is attempting to develop a mining industry to create jobs and tax revenue. Paraguay provides a low tax rate environment, a very efficient regulatory system and a helpful array of government agencies.

Latin American Minerals is currently commissioning Paraguay’s first gold mine at Paso Yobai, located 140 km east of the capital city of Asuncion. The Company is also exploring diamond, niobium and rare-earth properties in Paraguay.

Paraguay’s geology includes an Archean and Proterozoic shield substructure that is considered to be an extension of the Rio de la Plata craton which outcrops in the northern and southern parts of the country and in Uruguay. Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks were deposited in the large continental scale Paraná basin. Major sedimentation ended at the 140 Ma Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary. The first 15 million years of the Cretaceous were characterized by the emplacement of mafic dyke swarms, extensive continental basalt sheets and major alkaline complexes.

These rocks are present in Paraguay, Uruguay, southern Brazil and in Namibia. This igneous province is known as the Paraná-Etendeka Alkaline Province and includes an area of approximately 1.2 million km2 in South America and in Africa. Mafic and alkaline igneous activity ended at 120 Ma, more or less coinciding with the initial separation of southern Brazil and Uruguay from Namibia, an event that is dated by the 125 Ma oceanic basalt isochron.

At Paso Yobai, gold occurs in basalt dykes and in the enclosing Jurassic sandstones. The sandstone-hosted gold occurs mainly in its native state, often in delicate dendritic growths. The Paso Yobai gold deposit is informally and tentatively considered to be a very large footprint (>100 km2), very low temperature, low-sulphidation gold system. The origin of the gold and the gold transport system are unknown but are likely related to the regional emplacement of alkaline complexes and more specifically to the earlier intrusion of basalt dykes at the beginning of the Cretaceous. It is possible that two gold mineralizing events operated at Paso Yobai.

The presentation will summarize continental scale overview of the sedimentary and tectonic history of the region and will describe the local geology and gold occurrences at Paso Yobai. The development and financing of a small scale, innovatively designed gold extraction plant will be reviewed, together with the decision to proceed to production without the establishment of any quantified gold resource.

About the Presenter: Rick Boulay, Chairman, Latin American Minerals Inc.

Rick graduated with a B.SC. (Geology) from Carleton University in 1967 and has worked continuously in the minerals and hydrocarbon industries as an exploration geologist, mining analyst, banker and public company executive.  He was a founding director of San Gold Corporation in 2005 and acted as Chief Financial Officer during its formative years, resigning as a director in 2011. San Gold purchased and re-activated the Rice Lake Mine and discovered several proximal gold deposits with a capital investment of approximately $300 million over a five year period, generating 400 permanent jobs. He is Chairman of StrikePoint Gold Inc. StrikePoint holds gold exploration properties in the Rice Lake area of Manitoba and conducts reconnaissance exploration programs in Canada. He is Chairman of Latin American Minerals Inc., a company with extensive exploration activities in Paraguay, including the large and developing Paso Yobai gold system where a pilot plant bulk sampling operation is currently being commissioned.