Skeena Resources Ltd. - Malpica Project

Mexico

Malpica Project Tropico Project

Canada

Anglo Rouyn Project Anglo Rouyn Tailings Project METS Property

Maps & Galleries Technical Reports

Initial Drill Results - Spring 2008 - 5000m Program

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View our 43-101 Report

Dec 3, 2009 - Skeena Announces Robust Preliminary Assessment Results for Malpica Copper-Gold Project, Mexico

Mexico: Malpica Project

Malpica - Property Description

The Project is exceptionally well located with respect to available infrastructure in an area of gently rolling terrain
30 km east of the deep-water port of Mazatlan
25 km northeast of the Mazatlan International Airport
12 km northeast of the agricultural-industrial town of Villa Union
Property accessed by a new paved, 2-lane highway and several secondary roads
Property crossed by one major and one secondary power line
Railroad located within 5 km of the ore bodies
13 km east of the Presidio River
Large property (7,718 hectares)
Potentially open pittable 29 million tonnes * grading 0.64% Cu delineated in two, granodiortie-hosted, structurally-controlled, quartz-tourmaline breccia zones named Cerro Tunel and Cerro Pelon
Upper portions of both zones are oxidized and estimated to contain 8 million tonnes * grading 0.8% copper, 1.01 g/t gold and 5.26 g/t silver
Both zones form topographic highs and may be potentially exploitable in two adjacent open pits with low waste to ore strip ratios.
Sulphide facies of Cerro Tunel and Cerro Pelon remain open to depth, to the north and to the west.
A number of gold and gold-copper in soil geochemical anomalies have yet to be trenched or drill investigated.

*Historic inferred resources do not conform to Canada's National Instrument 43-101 requirements for reporting purposes; as such, the Company is not treating this estimate as current reserves. These estimates should not be relied upon until they have been verified by further due diligence and recalculated by an independent "Qualified Person".

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Geological Setting

The project is located on the western margin of the Sierra Madre Occidental Province and is underlain by regional intrusions of the Late Cretaceous to Eocene Sinaloa Coastal Batholith. The granodiorite is overlain by a series of younger volcanic rocks, including andesite, rhyolite and ash tuffs, and is cut by numerous but spatially restricted aplite, dacite and diorite dikes.

"The Malpica deposit hosts tourmaline cemented granodiorite breccia pipes that contain copper-gold mineralization hosted in a younger intrusive phase of the Sinaloa Batholith. In the writer's opinion, this deposit is a sub-type of the porphyry copper model. A younger intrusive event emanated from or intruded the Sinaloa Batholith and overlying andesite, followed by structurally controlled brecciation caused by the expansion of exsolved magmatic fluids from a cooling pluton. The breccia-matrix minerals, tourmaline, and quartz were followed by chalcopyrite, pyrite and precious metals precipitated from the same magmatic fluids responsible for the formation of the breccias. Alteration of clasts in the breccia and stockwork wall rock was also caused by the same fluids.

Historical information indicates that the mineralization is generally confined to the breccias, a tourmaline-quartz veinlet stockwork, and fracture fillings in the immediate wall rock. The peripheral alteration halo, commonly quite extensive in porphyry systems, is reported to be limited in extent, and in general terms, alteration intensities are comparatively weak.

Examples of this deposit type, although at a grander scale, are the Sur Sur and Donoso tourmaline breccias of the Rio Blanco -- Los Bronces district in central Chile.

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Jurassic marine sediments, which underlie the area at depth may contain boron rich sediments which could be the source of the tourmaline in the breccias. Evolving magmas under the right chemical conditions incorporate boron from shale wall rock and produce tourmaline breccias, veins and replacements during crystallization and evolution of the hydrothermal systems.

Mineralization at the Malpica deposit occurs in association with tourmaline rich breccia pipes hosted within a granodiorite. Mineralization, in the sulphide zone, in order of decreasing abundance is chalcopyrite >pyrite, trace bornite, and molybdenite. Gold and silver are associated with the copper mineralization but the relationship is not clearly understood. Malachite, copper bearing goethite, chrysocolla, manganese oxide, and limonite after chalcopyrite have been identified in the oxide zone. A poorly developed mixed zone contains copper oxides and some weak overgrowths of chalcocite or digenite on chalcopyrite, and rare covellite and native copper. The mineralization is associated with the tourmaline rich breccia matrix and with veinlets of tourmaline and quartz in fractures within the granodiorite.

Based on available sectional interpretations by ASARCO, brecciated granodiorite with variable amounts of tourmaline-quartz or biotite chlorite filling has been intersected to depths up to 200m in the C. Pelado breccia and approximately 150m in C. Tunel. The brecciation appears vertically oriented, however the margins are very irregular. Reports indicate that tourmaline content decreases with depth and is replaced by chlorite and biotite. "(N. von Fersen)