Aurcana Initiates PEA on Shafter Silver Project - Seite 2

About Shafter

Historic mining at Shafter was conducted by the Presidio Mining Company from 1883 to 1926 and was focused on the outcropping, western end of the deposit. It was then known as the Presidio Mine. Subsequently the American Metal Co. ("Amax") acquired the property and continued production until 1942. Amax mined the Presidio Mine from three principal vertical shafts and developed the mine on eight levels over a vertical distance of approximately 600 feet. From 1883 to 1942, when the Presidio mine was closed, total recorded production was 2.307 million tons of ore containing 35.153 million ounces of silver at an average grade of 15.24 ounces silver ("Ag") per ton.

Gold Fields Mining Corporation ("Gold Fields") held the Shafter property from 1977 to 1982. Gold Fields identified the northeastern, down-dip extension of the Shafter deposit, extending more than 5,000 feet from the deepest development workings in the Presidio mine, through a systematic surface-drilling program. During the 1980s, Gold Fields sunk a 1,052-foot shaft to access and explore this extension, extracting a 10,000 ton bulk sample for metallurgical studies and completing several internal economic assessments.

Rio Grande Mining Company ("RGMC") acquired Shafter in 1994 and in 2008 RGMC was purchased by Aurcana. Aurcana began exploration at Shafter in 2011 and has conducted geophysical surveying, drilling, mapping, and geochemical sampling since that time. Aurcana re-entered the old Presidio mine through a new decline in June 2012, with limited production commencing in December 2012 from mineralized materials found adjacent to Amax's old stopes. During this time a mineral processing plant and silver-recovery facility were constructed and brought on-line. The operation was placed on care and maintenance in December 2013.

Silver mineralization at Shafter occurs as sub-horizontal bodies of variably silicified oxide mineralization in Permian limestone. Mineralization occurs over a 13,000 feet east-northeast strike length, is locally up to 1,200 feet across, and is locally up to 20 feet thick. Thicknesses and silver grades can be variable.

The Shafter Silver Project currently has an Indicated Resource of 10,171,000 ounces silver at 9.15 ounces per ton Ag (in 1.11 million tons) and an Inferred Resource of 6,511,000 ounces silver at 7.47 ounces per ton Ag (in 0.87 million tons)¹, ². The mineral resource is based on 1,694 drill holes, the majority being underground holes evenly dispersed throughout the mineral resource, and a geologic model based on geological mapping and sampling.