Projects
Batopilas Project
Panoramic view of the Batopilas Canyon looking SE
Prime Location.
Located in SW Chihuahua, Mexico covering 1,183 hectares of land and 94% of the historic Batopilas Native Silver District.
Exceptional Mining District.
The Batopilas Mining District is one of the few mining districts where the major mineral is native silver. The purity level of this occurrence can be up to 75% Ag.
Well-studied Area.
Many studies of the district already characterized the occurrence and geometry of the ore, and its relationship to surrounding deposits in the area.
Encouraging Drill Result.
Drilling in 2005 intercepted 20 cm of brecciated vein con- taining 19 Kg/t (614 oz/t) of Ag. High grade samples obtained by Reyna Silver ranging from 305 to 42,302 g/t silver and 1.03 to 21.4 g/t gold.
The project is roughly centered on the town of Batopilas, which lies at about 550 m elevation in the bottom of the deep canyon of the Rio Batopilas.
Total driving time from Chihuahua City is around 8 1⁄2 to 9 hours.
The Chihuahua International Airport is about 250 km away from the property.
The nearest railhead is located in the town of Creel and is part of the famous Chihuahua to Los Mochis Trans-Sierra railroad.
The ALS-Chemex Laboratory operates a facility in Chihuahua.
Water is abundant at depth at lower elevations.
The main road, which is in very good condition, runs through Batopilas town. Road access within the project is fair over portions of the property.
The Batopilas District lies in the heart of the Sierra Madre Occidental magmatic province. This province con- sists of two thick Tertiary volcanic sequences deposited on a basement of Mesozoic sediments, metasediments, and intrusive rocks. The lower part of the volcanic sequence, referred to as the "lower volcanic complex" is composed dominantly of andesite tuffs and flows with lesser dacites and rhyolites. The upper volcanic sequence, referred to as the "upper volcanic supergroup" is dominantly composed of welded rhyolite ash-flow tuffs with lesser andesites, dacites, and basalts erupted from caldera complexes. Numerous intrusions, mostly subvolcanic equivalents to the ex- trusive volcanic units, cut the basement rocks and the lower part of the volcanic sequence.
The mineralization in the district is hosted entirely within the lower volcanic complex which consists of inter- mediate composition intrusive rocks, dominantly dacites and diorites, and extrusive rocks, dominantly andesite tuffs, flows, and volcaniclastic sediments.
Most structures in the district are faults, trending N30°E to N30°W. The major ore-controlling structures trend N-S to N30°E (Figure 6) and dip from 50°N to vertical. The oldest exposed rocks, and hosts to the majority of minerali- zation, are the sequentially emplaced Pastrana Dacite (85+ Ma), Dolores Microquartz Diorite (52 Ma), and Tahonas granodiorite (undated, probably about 45 Ma).
Illustration of the target zone and the subsurface at the Batopilas Project
Silver mineralization in the Batopilas Mining District dominantly occurs in the Pastrana Dacite, but veins are also hosted in the metamorphosed Mesozoic basement rocks, Tahonas Granodiorite and Dolores Microdiorite. Min- eralization throughout the silver zone overwhelmingly consists of crystallized native silver in calcite gangue.
The silver ores were high grade: ranging from the Batopilas Mining Company's 1990-1913 average direct smelting grade of 8,000 g/t to extremely high-grade pods carrying up to 75% Ag. Based on historical descriptions, ore shoots typically were 15-18 m long, 0.5-4.6 m wide (with 1m average) and up to 350 m down plunge.
Over the period 1880-1914, The Batopilas Mining Company produced an average of 100 tpd of ore: approxi- mately 10 tpd of smelting grade and 90 tpd of milling grade. These figures are averaged over 30 years and it must be remembered that between bonanzas, the mines were in development for months at a time without extracting any significant amounts of ore.
1630
Discovery of the high-grade native silver outcrops in the Batopilas District
1632-1732
Spanish era; the most productive period of mining in the district
1790-1819
Continued operating until Spaniards were expelled from Mexico
1862-1914
Most sophisticated and organized period of mining operations
1879
The Batopilas Mining Company was formed under the ownership of Alexander Robey Shepherd, a former governor of Washington D.C.
1880-1914
The Batopilas Mining Company worked sytematically on the mines. In 1902, A.R. Shepherd died and his four sons ran the mines and mills until 1914.
1910
Start of the Mexican Revolution
1914
Pancho Villa's troops arrived and devastated the area driving the Americans away from the district
1920s-1980s
Several attempts to revive the mining district
Pre-2003
El Sauzal became the major recent discovery in the region. Batopilas was the base camp for El Sauzal's exploration, located 15 km WSW of the district
2005-2009
MAG Silver: Drilling, Trenching and Road Programs and Regional Geochemistry
2018
Reyna Silver project acquisition
An estimated total of 200 Moz to 300 Moz of silver have been produced from the district, although pre- 1880 records are poor. This production figure includes the 40 Moz Ag produced by the Batopilas Mining Company not accounting any mining done by other companies in the area at the same time, such as the Santo Domingo Silver Mining Company, and the Todos Santos Mining Company.
View of the valley showing the town of Batopilas.
One Month’s Bullion Shipment: Batopilas 1906 Production about 300,000 Oz Fine Silver (each bar weighs 25Kg).
Drilling program at Batopilas in 2009.
Portion of the rehabilitated Porfirio Diaz tunnel.
Batopilas Minerals. Silver herringbone crystal with black argentite (acanthite), about 3 cm long. Min. Record, V.17, No.1, p. 68, Fig 9.
Batopilas Minerals. Spiky silver crystals to 2cm. Min. Record, V.17, No.1, p. 68, Fig 10.
