| Baza, Spain
Status: Under Joint Venture with Western Uranium Corporation (TSX.V: WUC)
Press Releases:
Target: The Baza District is a new district of Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG). Exposed at the surface are many kilometers of siderite-albite veins with up to 20 g/t Au and 10% Cu. Structural intersections in zones of transtension defining zones of sigmoidal shear are the most obvious target. Ground geophysics is helping to define proposed intrusives at depth that are believed to be the drivers to the system based on geochemistry.
Location: Rocks of the Betic Orogeny in southern Spain.
Ownership: Basti Resources is owned by EuEx, a
wholly-owned company by AuEx Ventures, Inc.
History: In 2006, AuEx was presented an opportunity to effectively grub stake experienced geologists for an idea to examine old iron mines in southern Spain that had reports of gold. Assays came back with up to 12 grams gold per ton. AuEx then visited the area and realized that the old iron mining district is a previously unrecognized Iron Oxide Copper Gold district. These are an enigmatic type of deposit that have created world class systems such as the largest ore deposit found in the 20th Century Olympic Dam in Australia. This particular variant appears to have its closest analogue in Kansanshi a significant deposit in the Zambian copper belt; however, the gold grades at Baza are much higher.
Further work ensued and the underlying geologists formed Basti Resources to acquire land. Subsequently, two rounds of regional
stream sediment surveys with follow-up rock chip sampling and prospecting have defined a large mineralized province. Basti has acquired several large mineral permits in the district.
An initial agreement with Longview Capital was terminated early in 2008 due to cash issues with the Longview Group. Nevertheless, favorable results were generated, and later followed up and verified by AuEx field geologists. The property has now been optioned to Western Uranium Corporation.
Geology: The Baza property is located in the internal zone of the Betic Orogeny. This region is famous for its world-class iron mines, but until now, little copper or gold production has occurred. On the SE edge of the Betics is a later 11 Ma volcanic field that hosts the well-known high-sulfidation Rodalquilar gold district. Reconnaissance stream sediment and rock chip sampling have identified an extensive swarm of siderite-albite + quartz and specular hematite veins hosted by metasedimentary rocks and historically mined for iron. Work by AuEx has found concentrations as high as 19.3 g/t Au, >10% Cu, 4.9% Co, and 0.56% Ni. Individual veins are commonly on the order of 1 meter wide, but vein swarms are as much as 60 meters wide and have been traced several kilometers along strike.
One of the better explored portions of the district is at Cerro del Gallo. Iron and minor copper have been produced (most recently from the 1950s) from a 500-meter-long section of siderite-albite-iron oxide veins, but reconnaissance mapping has extended known mineralization over a distance of at least 1.5 km, and the southern and northern limits of veining have still not been defined. Gold and copper are consistently anomalous over the entire 1.5 km strike distance, and 7 channel samples and 20 grab samples, all taken from oxidized rocks at the surface, average 3.7 ppm Au (0.11 oz/t Au) and 0.72 % Cu. Because of the oxidized nature of these samples, it is possible that copper has been partially leached from the surface and concentrations could be higher at depth.
In the region surrounding Cerro del Gallo, stream sediment gold analyses have defined strongly anomalous trends as much as 7 km long that cut across drainage patterns. Many new veins with multi-gram gold samples have been found, but many stream sediment anomalies have still not been traced to their source. This exploration program offers both well defined drill ready targets and highly prospective grass roots targets. The affinity that this mineralization displays with IOCG deposits, and the fact that this deposit type has not previously been described from this part of Spain, suggests a significant potential for making a discovery of economically important gold and copper mineralization.
AuEx Ventures, Inc. is a TSX listed precious metals exploration company that trades under the symbol XAU. The Company controls over 167,000 acres of unpatented claims and fee land that includes twenty properties in Nevada, two projects in Argentina and one project in Spain. Eleven of the projects are in joint venture agreements with seven companies providing exploration funding. The Company applies the extensive Nevada exploration experience and high-end
technical skills of its founders to search for and acquire new precious metal exploration projects that are then offered for joint venture.
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