Tumi adds to its property base.
Tumi Resources Ltd
TM
Shares issued 4,134,000
Oct 7 2002 close $ 0.30
Wednesday October 23 2002
News Release
Mr. David Henstridge reports
NEW ACQUISITION POSITIONS TUMI AS A PREMIER JUNIOR SILVER-GOL ...
Tumi Resources has acquired, subject to regulatory approval, a very significant addition to the company's
portfolio of silver-gold properties in Mexico. The company now has an extensive portfolio of early-stage
silver-gold properties, all having the potential to host large silver-gold resources. This acquisition will
catapult Tumi into one of the premier junior explorers for silver-gold deposits in Mexico.
The company has signed a heads of agreement (HOA) with Minera San Jorge, SA de CV (MSJ), a
private Mexican company, to acquire up to a 100-per-cent working interest in the Gran Cabrera
properties. The Gran Cabrera properties are located across the border of two states, Nayarit and Jalisco,
and cover a group of historically high-grade silver-gold mines.
David Henstridge, president of Tumi, noted: "We are extremely pleased with this new acquisition. In July
we concluded an agreement to acquire the Cinco Minas property on which work has already started.
These new properties are located about 40 kilometres northwest of Cinco Minas. They show significant
exploration and development potential which will enhance our Cinco Minas property, and can be
exploited in conjunction with our Cinco Minas work programs."
Under the terms of the HOA on the Gran Cabrera properties, the company may earn a 60-per-cent
interest by expending $2.5-million (U.S.), over three years, on the Gran Cabrera or Cinco Minas
properties and issuing an initial 250,000 shares upon regulatory approval, and a further 500,000 shares
over two years. At Gran Cabrera, the company has committed to incur minimum expenditures of $75,000
(U.S.), $100,000 (U.S.) and $150,000 (U.S.) over three years. The company has the right to purchase
the remaining 40-per-cent interest in the Gran Cabrera properties should a development area be
identified.
The Gran Cabrera properties, totalling 3,950 hectares, are centred on three large silver-gold epithermal
systems associated with volcanic units northwest of Guadalajara, Mexico. San Jos, Espada-La Deseada
and Las Caridades are groupings of rich, historic, silver-gold mines located in the historic Hostotipaquillo
mining district. The Cabrera megasystem contains stockworks, breccia hosted orebodies and large vein
feeder subsystems at the intersection of the Sierra Madre and the Trans Mexican volcanic arc. Within the
property areas there are more than 15 significant old precious metals mines that historically produced
high-grade silver-gold ore periodically over a period of more than 350 years beginning with their
discovery by early Spanish conquistadors. The mines covered include the San Jos, Esperanza, Crest
centsn, Espada, Deseada, Paloma, Dura, Esmeralda, Burro, Concordia, Escondida, Banco, Peralta, Caridad
and Victoria mines.
There are four immediate primary target areas within the property areas,
Espada-Dura-Deseada-Esmeralda cluster; and the San Jose cluster (with the Velazquez exploration adit
driven at a lower level) including the Esperanza and Crest centsn mines, and the Caridad cluster of mines
including the Banco, Escondida, Concordia, la Caridad, Victoria, Burro and Paloma mines, the latter two
along the Santiago River; and a fourth area around the Peralta mine and adjacent areas. All four areas
show evidence of Spanish exploration and mining as well as mining efforts conducted by American
mining interests into the early part of the 20th century.
The Espada-Deseada-Dura-Esmeralda (Espada mines) cluster of old mine workings represents the
west-central part of the Gran Cabrera Mega-shear which is known over a distance of approximately 15
kilometres. According to engineering reports prepared by the American operators in the early 1900s who
opened small pits at three of the mines, the Espada ores were the highest grade of gold and silver ores
mined in the Gran Cabrera district. The mines, which lie within a brecciated, extensive shear zone in
volcanics, are open-pit targets and a breccia pipe may be represented at Espada. The Dura and Deseada
mineralization appears to lie within a large, relatively rich stockwork. Within the prospective area,
pervasive alteration by quartz and vuggy silica in veins, and stockworks, produced very hard, silicified
host rocks which could not be economically mined and processed either by the early Spanish miners or
by the Americans in the early part of the 20th century. These zones are also immediate exploration targets
as modern mining practices can handle this type of ore.
Consultant geologist Kent Ausburn (1997) visited the area, undertook some sampling and concluded:
"Early indications of broad zones of potentially bulk minable silver-gold mineralization have been
delineated in several locations. The most promising areas are Espada-Deseada and Dura," among others.
Mr. Ausburn reported sample results of 30 metres across strike at Deseada grading 0.41 of a gram per
tonne Au and 153.3 g/t Ag, and in the upper level of the Espada mine, 12 samples collected along a strike
length of 425 metres (width not given) graded 0.55 g/t Au and 398.9 g/t Ag. At the Dura mine, surface
sampling of a stockwork area covering about 150 metres by 50 metres averaged 0.29 g/t Au and 206 g/t
Ag. These results show the prospectivity of the mineralized zones and justify an immediate start to
exploration.
At the San Jose mine, the Velzquez adit is 350 metres in length, and was driven for exploration into the
surrounding host rocks trying to cut high-grade ore shoots within the larger megashears, breccias and
stockworks. It remains unknown as to whether low-grade mineralization was intersected by these
cross-cuts simply because no records of sampling of the wall rocks exist and lower-grade mineralization
would not have been of interest to the miners driving those workings. Also at the San Jose mine, another
adit (the Vida) has been developed for 380 metres and Villafana reported in 1916 from San Jose that ores
were found with grades that can be beneficiated by cyanidation, and ore blocks were developed in the
mine estimated to be 100,000 tonnes, with an average grade of 1.5 g/t Au and 500 g/t Ag.
The initial work program on the Gran Cabrera properties will consist of data recompilation, geological
mapping and verification or extension of earlier channel sampling of vein, stockwork and breccia-hosted
precious metal mineralization, seeking ore-grade mineralization suitable for open-pit mining. Once target
areas have been identified drilling will be programmed as soon as practicable.
regards
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