This deal covers 13,350 hectares of mining claims over a system of high-grade epithermal silver veins and breccias that occur within a corridor nine-km long and two-km wide.
The company said that recent discoveries of high grade silver veins in the eastern part of the project have highlighted major potential for additional discoveries, where vein zones such as the San Pablo – La Fragua – Orozco trend can be traced for over three-km along strike, including widths of individual zones up to 30m on surface.
The Santa Cruz project lies within the Silver Lake Trend, a polymetallic belt that hosts several operating and past producing gold and silver mines.
Under the agreement with a Mexican mining firm, Focus has the option to acquire 80% of the Santa Cruz project by defining 15Moz of silver equivalent resources in the inferred category within four years, and by paying the owner a total of $20m cash.
Upon exercise of the option, the company must grant the owner a 3% NSR on future production.
The agreement also grants Focus right of first preference to the historic Santa Cruz and Zambranena mines (201 hectares) located in the west and central parts of the Santa Cruz project.
The Santa Cruz project is located in the western flank of the Sierra Madre Occidental Volcanic Province.
Mineralization consists of veins and breccias (intermediate and low sulphidation) extending over a strike length of at least nine-km, historically termed the West, Central and Eastern Districts, Focus said.
