gold & silver exploration
Idaho, Nevada, Alaska & Mexico.
Azteca Gold Corp., Spokane, WA, TSX.V : AZG, is an aggressive gold and silver exploration company. Our focus is to maximize long term shareholder value by making new discoveries in past producing districts located in miner-friendly locations: Idaho, Nevada, Alaska, and Mexico.
Led by CEO and Chairman Matthew Russell, formerly co-founder and V.P. of Operations for Idaho General Mines (now General Moly - GMO), Azteca Gold’s management, staff and consultants have a proven track record of finding and developing economic mineral deposits.
Azteca's growing portfolio of gold and silver exploration projects has been meticulously constructed utilizing a philosophy of value, ability to test for large upside relatively cheaply, and reduced external risks such as political, permitting, local infrastructure, financing, etc. Azteca’s strategy is to generate projects meeting its requirements and develop them through to world-class bankable feasibility studies as quickly as possible. From that point, Azteca may move to construction and production, joint-ventures to achieve same, or outright sale on each project as best affects the shareholders.
2008 OVERVIEW
The Company is a development stage company engaged in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties. The Company’s main focus is on exploration for gold and silver in Mexico and the United States.
· On February 5, 2008 the Two Mile Joint Venture Agreement was amended whereby the Company earned a 25% interest in the property from Silver Royal Apex, Inc.
· On March 20, 2008 the Company announced that it had received an extension with respect to the Bunker Hill Mine option agreement to July 20, 2008.
· On April 14, 2008 the Company received an extension to the agreement of transfer of ownership of the Santa Matilde mineral concessions. Under the extension the Company’s option payment of $750,000 due March 7, 2008 was extended to September 15, 2008 and was outstanding at September 30, 2008 (see subsequent event note).
· The Tres de Mayo (TDM) Gold-Silver Property was paid in full on April 14, 2008. The Company now holds a 100% interest in the property.
· On May 6, 2008 the Company acquired a 100% interest in the Geroe Creek Project, located in the Brooks Range, Alaska. This porphyry style moly-copper mineralization property consists of 168 contiguous Alaska state mining claims covering approximately 26,880 acres.
· On July 11, 2008 the Two Mile Joint Venture Agreement was amended whereby the Company gains its 50% ownership position by spending $2,000,000 on the project rather than $2,500,000 as required in the original agreement dated August 14, 2007. The amendment also calls for spending an additional $1,000,000 on the project by November 3, 2009 in order to retain the operatorship of the project.
· On July 20, 2008 the Company let lapse its option agreement with respect to the Bunker Hill Mine property located in Kellog, Idaho as a result of being unable to come to a commercially acceptable agreement with the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the owner.
· On September 30, 2008 the Company completed a private placement of 27,042,749 units at a price of $0.0525 per share. Each unit consists of one common share and one share purchase warrant. Each warrant has a two-year term and is exercisable for $0.25 per share. The total proceeds of the transaction were $1,419,743.
The Guerra al Tirano silver-gold property consists of three mining concessions in the Temoris district in the Sierra Madre Occidental, southwestern Chihuahua State, Mexico. In aggregate the three concessions cover 94.5 hectares.
The silver-gold mineralization is contained within a classic low-sulfidation epithermal system consisting of quartz veins, stockworks, and breccias. The breccias range in thickness from 2 to 17 meters wide and have a strike length of over 1.4 kilometers. These structures generally trend north-south and have dips ranging from 50 to 75 degrees.
Matilde (MAT - Chihuahua, Mexico) – Gold-Silver Prospect Located South of GAT
On November 9, 2007 the Company announced that it has, through its wholly owned Mexican subsidiary, entered into an arms-length agreement (the "Agreement") of transfer of ownership of the Santa Matilde Mineral Concessions (the "Matilde Concessions") located on and surrounding the town of Santa Matilde, Chihuahua about 20 kilometers to the southwest of the regional mining town of Temoris, Chihuahua. The Company's flagship exploration project Guerra al Tirano is located nearby, 9 kilometers to the northwest of Temoris. The Matilde Concessions stretch approximately 7.5 kilometers north to south and cover approximately 2,677 hectares, and contain several historic workings.
Marietta (MAR - Mineral County Nevada) – Gold-Silver Property in Historic Silver District
On September 7, 2007 the Company announced it had completed the arms-length purchase of a 100% interest in the Marietta property, which consists of approximately 122 patented and unpatented claims located in Mineral County in Nevada. On the 13 patented claims there is a 1% NSR royalty. The Company has received an independent technical report, compliant with NI 43-101, on this property from Edward Brennan of Brisbane, Australia, which will be available on SEDAR and the Company website.
Two Mile (TWO - Osburn, Idaho) – Silver Prospect
On August 14, 2007, the Company entered into an arms-length joint venture agreement (the "Two Mile Joint Venture") in respect to the Silver Valley Two Mile Property located in Shoshone County, Idaho. The Two Mile Property is owned by Silver Royal Apex, Inc. of Wallace, Idaho and is comprised of 118 unpatented claims. Recent geophysical work has identified several potential sulfide targets which will be the focus of a diamond drill exploration program for primarily silver by the Two Mile Joint Venture.
Geroe Creek Molybdenum Prospect
Azteca Gold Corp. has recently acquired a 100% interest in the Geroe Creek project, located in the Brooks Range, Alaska. The property consists of 168 contiguous Alaska state mining claims covering approximately 26,880 acres. The property lies northeast of the Hogatza porphyry copper belt in the eastern Brooks Range of northern Alaska. It is located within an identified copper-lead-zinc metal province and adjacent to a gold (antimony-tungsten) province. The copper-lead-zinc belt hosts at least one major metalliferous lode deposit, as well as a large number of minor deposits.
LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES
The cash required for operations for the quarter ended September 30, 2008 was funded through the use of cash reserves. As of September 30, 2008 the Company had working capital of $1,915,486 (September 30, 2007 working capital $4,015,720).
SUBSEQUENT EVENTS OR PROPOSED TRANSACTIONS
As well as what was noted in the 2008 overview the Company also had the following transactions:
On November 13, 2008, the Corporation completed the purchase of Guerra al Tirano with payments totaling US $500,000. The Corporation now owns 100% of this property.
Effective November 13, 2008 the Company has extended the expiration date to June 15, 2009 on 17,207,165 warrants that were to expire on December 11, 2008 and 2,437,501 warrants that were to expire on March 19, 2009.
On November 19, 2008 the Two Mile Joint Venture Agreement was amended whereby Silver Royal Apex recognizes that Azteca has earned its 50% interest in the property and that Azteca is now the operator of the Joint Venture. Apex shall have four months from November 19, 2008 to start matching the funds expended by Azteca above the three million already spent. Apex shall have three months following the end of that four month period to have paid in full all matching funds due.
On November 21, 2008 the Company entered into a membership agreement with a Nevada LLC in which the Company has been granted a 50% ownership stake in exchange for:
· Releasing the owner from the previous agreement of the Santa Matilde concessions dated November 9, 2007.
· Paying to the owner on behalf of the Nevada LLC the sum of US $200,000, of which $50,000 was paid on signing and of which $150,000 is to be paid on or before December 30, 2008.
· Paying to the owner 2,000,000 common shares of the Company within 30 days of acceptance of the transaction by the Toronto Venture Exchange.
· Doing a minimum of US $500,000 worth of exploration work on the Santa Matilde concessions on behalf of the Nevada LLC over 24 months from the date of signing. Any amount of the work commitment can be made by escrowing funds on behalf of the Nevada LLC specifically designated to be used for exploration and/or feasibility work on the property.
· As a 50% owner of the Nevada LLC, the Company, it successors and assigns, to honor its pro-rata share of the surcharge agreement as given in the original Santa Matilde agreement dated November 9, 2007 wherein the vendor receives a production surcharge on equivalent gold in reserve as determined in the feasibility study.
· The Nevada LLC holds claim to 100% interest in the Santa Matilde concessions. Transfer of title will occur upon the successful completion of items 1-4 above.