Coastal Iron Exploration - Other Claims

There are 700 kilometers of the Southern Peruvian coast with favorable geology for iron, iron deposits and iron occurrences. The largest iron deposits in Peru, Marcona and Pampa de Pongo, are located in this belt 400 kilometers south of Lima. Marcona is owned and operated by Shougang Hierro Peru (Shougang is the fourth largest steel producer in China) and expects to increase production from 5.5 million tonnes of iron ore in 2009 to 10.0 million tonnes in 2010, after a 1.0 billion US dollar investment in project upgrades announced last year. Pampa de Pongo, recently purchased by Nanjinzhao Group of China for US $100 million dollars from Cardero Resource Corporation of Canada, is being advanced to production.

Both Marcona and Pampa de Pongo are 'IOCG' (Iron Oxide Copper Gold) type deposits, which have skarn deposit-type affinities and normally have at least anomalous to ore-grade copper and/or gold values. There are also important copper-rich deposits and many small gold veins and occurrences in this belt. While the belt has been explored for copper dominant IOCG deposits by most of the large copper companies working in Peru, only recently has the belt attracted attention for iron and iron exploration, in spite of the significant size of the two known deposits.

Besides the geologic reasons, the coast of Peru is an excellent region to explore for iron due to good infrastructure and easy access, very few people living outside large port cities, due to the very arid climate, and the presence of several ports.

The company has staked additional claims in the coast of southern Peru - one claim of 900 hectares (Latin Pampa de Pongo), in the Marcona and Pampa de Pongo deposits area, 400 kilometers south of Lima and two claim blocks of 2,400 hectares total (Ferro Tacna claims) in the Tacna Department south of Ilo. The Latin Pampa de Pongo claim was staked on an open block approximately 5.0 kilometers from the Pampa de Pongo deposit, based on an airborne magnetic image map acquired by the Company that shows an anomaly similar to the original airborne anomaly that led to the discovery of the Pampa de Pongo deposit. The surface of the claim is completely covered by sand and a ground magnetic survey is currently underway over this block.

The two blocks staked in Tacna were based on Fe anomalies, occurrences, and favorable geology in the Company database. The claims will be first-pass field evaluated in the second quarter of 2010.

Pampa de Pongo tenements

Tacna tenements