PROJECTS / Dragoon Project, Arizona

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The Dragoon property is a contiguous block of 12.8 sq. km that comprises 68 patented mining claims and four State leases located in southeast Arizona. The property contains areas of exposed Copper-Molybdenum mineralization, Laramide-age porphyry and leached capping” in the eastern part of the property and a larger down-dropped block of porphyry related rocks in the gravel-covered western portion of the property. The presence of the “leached cap” rocks is significant as they may overlie supergene-enriched copper mineralization at depth.

On September 1st, 2009 Southern Silver Exploration announced they signed an earn-in agreement with Freeport-McMoRan Exploration Corporation (FMEC) for the Company’s Dragoon Porphyry Project located approximately 100 kilometres southwest of Tucson Arizona. Under the terms of the agreement FMEC may earn a 70% ownership interest in the Dragoon project by spending US$3 million on the property by December 31, 2012.

In August, 2010 FMEC indicated it completed a single RC/core drill hole to a depth of 1065 metres within the gravel covered western side of the project area. This hole, which was drilled beyond the target depth of 900 metres, tested a down-thrown fault block of prospective Paleozoic stratigraphy adjacent to an exposed Laramide-age porphyry system in the eastern part of the property. FMEC reported that the hole intersected thick gravel cover to 380 metres depth followed by variable to strong skarn alteration and silicification within the underlying Paleozoic stratigraphy. Extensive oxidation of the primary sulphide minerals is noted to a depth of 820 metres where the hole then intersected, across a faulted contact, a sulphide-bearing footwall schist. FMEC reports it is encouraged by the extent of alteration of the host lithologies in the drill hole and overall thickness of the oxide zone. A decision for further work on the project is pending the receipt of assays and the results of geophysical surveys over the gravel covered areas of the property.

Historic exploration and drilling on the Dragoon property by Kennecott, Noranda and US Borax found evidence of a widespread mineralizing system including hematite-sericite-altered intrusive rocks, low-grade chalcopyrite and chalcocite mineralization and thick intervals of “leached capping”. The presence and relative thickness of this leached oxide zone is significant as it may overlie supergene-enriched copper oxides at depth in the relatively under-explored gravel covered western portion of the property.

Exploration on the Dragoon property is targeting a deeply buried porphyry Cu-Mo system of potentially similar size and grade as the Resolution deposit, located 5 kilometres east of Superior, Arizona. The Resolution deposit, operated through a joint venture between Rio Tinto Plc and BHP Billiton, is a world-class porphyry Cu-Mo system located beneath a minimum of 1000m of post-mineral cover. The deposit is hosted in a sequence of sedimentary and intrusive rocks varying in age from Precambrian to early-Tertiary. In May, 2008 Rio Tinto reported an Inferred Resource for the Resolution deposit of 1.34 billion tonnes containing 1.51% Cu and 0.04% Mo.