I have finally tracked down details for the tenement locations for Chilis 12-18. They are southern extensions of the SZ group of tenements.
The claims highlighted in blue are registered to HCH's Chilean registered company Sociedad Minera La Frontera SPA. Not 100% certain but the term "constituida" probably means granted, while "en Tramite" pending?
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Understanding tenement systems is very important for companies, much less so for HC folks. I'm still picking up some of the basics such as those below. I can't guarantee the accuracy of this information picked up over the last little while. DYOR and please correct or add if anything is incorrect.
The Chilean tenement system allows for multiple tenements over the same ground with the first having ground rights and the later ones having right of first refusal.
There are three main categories of tenement.
- Historical pre 1983. There seldom seems to be any recent activity on these claims which are probably passed down in families for generations. They probably have annual fees but no ongoing spending commitments.
- Post 1983 Exploration claims like the Chilis group and many other's that HCH 'have'.
- Post 1983 "Exploitation" claims usually have an old prospect or two on them. Whether they are active or not...? The comment about Valentina at October's GM may be applicable to this category. Annual fees are required but not onerous (paraphrased).
Comparing an older version of the Government tenements with what is available now shows the main additions in 2021 for Cortadera/Productora are the Chilis tenements of HCH and a small block west of Cortadera. Not a detail search with only these two areas prominent.
The SCM Constelacion group of claims SE of SZ may be fairly recent but I don't have data to show when they were added.
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At the consolidation GM, CE did mention multiple targets for the upcoming regional exploration. I didn't go looking for possible areas but suspect the Chilis 12-18 tenements may be one area if not already included in SZ.
The areas to the south, west and south east of the previously reported soil samples were obvious targets with soil geochem anomalies being open and geological hints.
There is visible evidence on Google earth of a probable extensive exploration program that included some drilling and perhaps trenching. Also some older prospecting and small scale mining.
Annotated southern SZ on Google Earth.
Most tracks of the probable exploration drilling are picked out. Not all. Some of the green stars are probably drill pads while others could be aspects of road building.
The mine workings to the west of Chilis 17 are not too extensive but similar to many narrow vein operations along the North South trend up towards Cortadera.. Most appear to be striking N-S.
The Claims to the east are probably for Limestone as an industrial mineral. Caliza/Carbonato - translate as Limestone/Carbonate(?). Also the visuals appear more like scrapings of larger areas rather than trenching as seen on Isolina1. The colour anomalies on these claims may reflect the underlying geology. Reddish brown (1) could be from weathering of Pyrite though that is a real guess. The white/grey (2) would support an underlying carbonate unit.
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Focusing on the area immediately south of prior soil sampling:
Good exposures in the river valley. Distinct colour and bedding variations hint at faulting/thrusting.
Molybdenum soil geochemistry is subdued in the SE part of the program on this image but other elements give 3D anomalism.
The Mina in the central east of Chilis 10 looks more like a processing hub from sometime in the last century. The size of the workings immediately adjacent don't match the 'spoil' in the area - unless there are some small scale underground workings.
Trends of workings are mainly NS but quite variable. The NE/SW trend is parallel to some HCH mapped breccias/intrusives.
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EXPLORATION POTENTIAL?
The visuals for the area look attractive for exploration. Further soils and geophysics are likely planned.
There is at least 100m of cover sediment which have probably been locally penetrated by intrusives/breccias and local hydrothermal fluids in the Chilis 10 area. Some implication for the depth of exploration drilling required.
From the 3D geochem announcement a couple more images
The margin for 2020 soils comes from coordinates and photo interp of data transposed from announcements at the time.The boundary serves as a useful reference - If accurate.
- The circled areas 1-3 appear to be outside the 2020 sampling.
- Real or an artifact of the processing?
- Is it a result of early results from a 2021 soil sampling program?
- Mentioned it before but the large mapped intrusive has a moderate to high (open) 3D anomaly.
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Magnetics and 3D
- The Chilis 10-18 claims are south of this image.
- Magnetic low open to south.
- Open 3D geochem and northern end of open magnetics coincident.
- 3D geochem and magnetic lows coincident only by chance? Multiple styles of 3D geochem??
- SE (Chilis 4+) magnetic pattern distinctly higher. Mapped intrusive correlates well with magenta/pink high. Other minor intrusives mapped to the east may suggest the cover over them (intrusives) could be quite shallow in the area.
- 3D geochem looks encouraging in this SE area.
- Two main trends NS lows and NE/SW magnetic highs. Different to the NW-SE Serrano (Cortadera) trend.
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The Chilis 10-18 claims represent a significant southerly extension of the SZ area of interest. Previous workers have conducted at least one significant drill campaign IMO. Results for which should be available. Further smoke exists in small scale prospector pits and minor mining.
Applications are in for permits to work. Hopefully come through as expected.
(20min delay)