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Northwestern Mexico’s Great Potential for Gold Discoveries

By Michael Wood - Reyna Gold
CEO

STORY INLINE POST

By Michael Wood | CEO - Tue, 01/11/2022 - 14:16

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Northwestern Mexico is highly prospective for gold mineralization. Geologically, it is very similar to California and Nevada but has never received the investment or international attention in terms of exploration that California and Nevada have.

The West Coast of America was populated and developed on the back of the California Gold Rush, which started in 1848, after the Mexican-American War. Over 300,000 gold seekers flocked to the area and the state of California was founded in 1850. American politicians at the time greatly encouraged not only Americans but people from all around the world to flock to the newly acquired land in search of gold, which greatly benefited the US economy.

Around 150,000 of the gold seekers, who became affectionately known as “49ers” the year of peak immigration came from overseas, mainly from Europe, Australia, China and Latin America, and went on to settle on the West Coast of America. California became known as the Golden State and Nevada the Silver State, although Nevada has now produced more gold, at around 215m ounces to California’s 118m. Add in Arizona, and the area has produced 350m ounces of gold, around 5.3% of the total gold ever produced.

This type of mass gold exploration has never occurred south of the border in Mexico. Still fresh from independence from Spain in 1821 and having had two major invasions from both the French and Americans Mexico was very wary about further invasion and did not welcome the gold rushes of the 1840/50s. And although US investment started to emerge in the later part of the 19th century, it was stopped by the Mexican Revolution. Foreign investment did not really restart until the signing of NAFTA in 1994.

During this period up to 1994, while California and Nevada produced vast quantities of gold, Sonora and Chihuahua experienced mainly small-scale local production, which lacked the capital or the expertise to explore for major discoveries. Until the signing of NAFTA, for a foreign company to explore or operate in Mexico, it needed to have a majority Mexican partner. This greatly restricted the capital and expertise needed to make gold discoveries.

However, since the signing of NAFTA, things have started to change for the better. Based on an inflow of mainly Canadian and American capital, on the back of which major companies such as Goldcorp, Pan American Silver and First Majestic were formed with exploration assets in Mexico, two major gold trends have been identified flowing into Mexico from the US: the Mojave-Sonora Megashear and the Sierra Madre Gold and Silver Belt. Over 50m ounces of gold has now been discovered on these two trends and the discovery of intergenerational deposits like La Herradura has shown the vast potential the trends hold.

Also, the discoveries of bulk tonnage heap leachable gold deposits in Northwestern Mexico similar to those that catapulted Nevada to produce over 5 percent of global gold supply every year, have attracted a lot more interest in gold exploration in Sonora and Chihuahua. However, the knowledge of the gold trends is still decades behind peers California and Nevada in terms of understanding of the geology and consequently unlocking the gold mineralization. This grand prize is what excites the likes of Peter Megaw and Doug Kirwin, two of the world’s preeminent exploration geologists who are leading the exploration team for Reyna Gold, a newly formed company focused on gold exploration in Northwestern Mexico.

Reyna Gold has four properties covering over 57,000ha, or 570km2, on these two major gold trends, the Mojave Sonora Megashear and the Sierra Madre Gold and Silver Belt. The properties have been acquired due to their similarities to the gold properties in Nevada and California, and also the recently discovered properties on the Mojave-Sonora Megashear and the Sierra Madre Gold and Silver Belt. Reyna Gold has raised over CA$13 million for initial exploration work with a number of major global mining investment funds as shareholders. It will start trading on TSXV under the ticker REYG this month.

Photo by:   Michael Wood

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