Mauricio Hochschild S.A. de C.V. is a privately held company that is very active in Mexico. It is based out of Peru and is family based stemming from a long mining tradition.

Mauricio Hochschild S.A. de C.V.

A privately held company that has picked up a couple of premier properties from Western Copper. They don't waste any $$ on PR so press releases and info are largely from Western Copper. Take the project links over to Western's website for detailed drill hole maps, drill results and other good info etc.

Peñasquito Property, Zacatecas.  Optioned from Western Copper. Under the option agreement Hochschild has made a US$500,000 land purchase payment and may earn a 68% interest in the property by the expenditure of US$1,750,000 on exploration and development work over three years.   Upon Hochschild earning a 68% interest, Hochschild and Western will enter into a joint venture under which continued exploration and land payments will be funded 68% by Hochschild and 32% by Western. Upon Hochschild earning a 68% interest, Western may elect to reduce its 32% working interest to a 20% carried interest through production, with Hochschild providing all financing. 

During the last two years of the option period, land payments will be funded 68% by Hochschild and 32% by Western. Western may elect not to contribute its portion of the land payments, in which case the interest of Western will be reduced to a 10% carried interest. Hochschild must make a production decision by April 18, 2005, or 100% interest in the property will revert to Western. 

The Penasquito project is a 3,255 hectare silver-lead-zinc-gold property located in the Concepcion del Oro district in the northeast corner of the State of Zacatecas. The mineralization/alteration system has dimensions in excess of nine square kilometers and lies beneath 30 meters of alluvial cover. Previous work by Western and Minera Kennecott has identified one zone of probable economic silver, lead and zinc mineralization at Chile Colorado as well as two large breccia pipes and several outlying targets with high-grade intercepts of silver, lead, zinc and gold mineralization. 

A detailed CSAMT (Controller-Source Audio-Frequency Magnetotelluric) survey, core relogging and data integration provide support for bulk mineable mineralization in several areas in and around the Azul breccia pipe: 

Chile Colorado: The mineralized zone has been intersected by 8 drill holes and has minimum dimensions of 400 meters by 250 meters by 150 meters. CSAMT surveying suggests that mineralization may extend 100-200 m to the south and east. The shape of the anomaly supports the geophysical interpretation that mineralization is in the form of a chimney. 

North Azul: Hole PN-11, drilled by Kennecott along the northern margin of the Azul breccia, intersected 297 meters averaging 66 g/t silver and 2% combined lead-zinc. Our CSAMT results show that his hole was drilled into the contact zone of an intrusive which extends northwesterly for 400-600 meters and is at least 200 meters wide. Drilling is planned to determine if the entire intrusive contact is mineralized. 

Other Targets: Several CSAMT anomalies have been identified which have the same shape as the Chile Colorado anomaly, suggesting the presence of additional chimney style mineralization. One of these anomalies has a coincident geochemical anomaly. 

Data compilation and review, following completion of Western's initial nine hole drill program, indicate that Chile Colorado silver-lead-zinc-gold mineralization may represent the southern lobe of a much larger system which extends north for 1,200 meters through the Azul pipe into the North Azul area. Such a mineralized system, based on a few widely spaced drill holes, could contain up to 200 million tonnes averaging 0.3-0.5 g/t gold, 70-90 g/t silver, and 2.0-3.0% combined lead-zinc. 

WWWinfo February 2001

San Jeronimo Property, Zacatecas. The San Jeronimo prospect is under option to Peruvian Mining Company, Mauricio Hochschild & Cia. Ltda. Under the option agreement Hochschild has 90 days from August 25th 2,000 to give Western notice that it intends to proceed with a work program under the same terms and conditions as Penasquito: 1) Hochschild may earn a 68% interest by the expenditure of US$1,750,000 on exploration and development work over
three years. 2) Upon Hochschild earning a 68% interest, Hochschild and Western will enter into a joint venture under which continued exploration and land payments will be funded 68% by Hochschild and 32% by Western. 3) Upon Hochschild earning a 68% interest, Western may elect to reduce its 32% working interest to a 20% carried interest through production, with Hochschild providing all financing. 4) During the last two years of the option period, land payments will be funded 68% by Hochschild and 32% by Western. Western may elect not to contribute its portion of the land payments, in which case the interest of Western will be reduced to a 10% carried interest.

Hochschild must make a production decision by April 18, 2005, or 100% interest in the property will revert to Western.


The San Jeronimo prospect is located 20 kilometers south of the city of Zacatecas in the heart of a strongly mineralized zone known as the Faja de Plata. The Chilitos formation, a Jurassic to Cretaceous age complex of weakly metamorphosed submarine volcanic rocks which hosts the
San Nicolas deposit, is exposed in an erosional window surrounded by post-mineral Tertiary rhyolites.   Detailed mapping and sampling of the Loreto-Santa Maria epithermal vein system, which has been mapped over a strike length of 2,400 meters near the town of Minillas, has defined an exciting Fresnillo style silver target.

Historical information indicates that the mines in the San Jeronimo area were important producers of silver until 1911, when the Mexican Revolution forced curtailment of operations. Silver reportedly occurred in 1-7 meter wide, high grade veins containing pyargyrite (ruby silver). A number of shafts, up to 200 meters in depth, occur along the 2.4 kilometer surface trace of the vein system which strikes easterly across the prospect. 

The veins at surface vary in width from a few centimeters to 3 meters and typically consist of brown calcite with a few quartz veinlets which contain anomalous silver values (2-50 g/t). Western Copper drilled one hole close to the Loreto shaft near the western limit of the outcropping vein system to intersect the downward projection of a brown calcite vein.
Hole SJ-2 intersected a strongly mineralized quartz vein containing ruby silver at 168.3 meters. The entire 3.1 meter wide structure averages 541 g/t silver (17.4 oz/tonne), 0.7% lead and 1.55% zinc. Included within this interval is a 0.9 meter sulfide rich vein which averages 1.6 kg/tonne silver (51.4 oz/tonne), 2.12% lead and 4.52% zinc. This hole is significant
because it confirms that with increasing depth, silver values increase and the brown carbonate grades into silica. Drilling in late 1999 further enhanced this project. 

Loreto vein-stockwork system  Near the center of the vein, the mafic flows, mafic to felsic tuffs and
volcaniclastic rocks in an area measuring at least 2,000 feet in a north-south direction by 2,600 feet in an east-west direction have been pervasively altered to carbonate and sericite. The altered area also contains up to several percent pyrite. Hole RC-3-99, designed to test the Loreto vein system, was drilled from south to north along the west side of the pervasively altered zone and intersected a 125 foot interval beginning at 240 feet which averages 119.7 g/t silver, 0.72% lead and 1.24% zinc.
Included within this zone is a 10 foot interval from 300-310 feet that averages 487.5 g/t silver, 1.67% lead and 2.87% zinc (Table 1). Additional drilling will be required to determine the true width and lateral extent of this mineralized zone. Hole RC-3-99 is 3,600 feet east of hole SJ-2 drilled by Western Copper in 1998, which contains a 10-foot interval averaging 541 g/t silver. Also recently completed soil samples have identified an open-ended silver anomaly, with dimensions of at least
650 feet by 500 feet, 350-500 feet south of the collar of hole RC-3-99. Hole RC-3-99, together with the results from SJ-2, demonstrates that the Loreto vein not only has potential for high-grade silver veins but may also contain bulk-mineable vein-stockwork silver-lead-zinc mineralization. 

San Jose massive sulfide target  Hole RC-1-99 intersected Chilitos formation tuffs and greenstones over the entire hole length of 375 feet. Massive sulfide mineralization, consisting of fine-grained pyrite, silica, and minor chalcopyrite-sphalerite, was discovered at a depth of 150 feet. The entire 10-foot interval from 150-160 feet averages 0.56% copper, 0.38% zinc, 5.6 g/t silver and
0.02% lead. The best interval from 150-155 feet contains 0.90% copper, 0.59% zinc and 8.6 g/t silver (Table 1). [need link to Table 1 here] Hole RC-2-99, drilled about 330 feet north of hole RC-1-99, intersected iron oxides from 50-55 feet which contain 0.11% copper and 0.13% zinc. This interval is interpreted to be the oxidized equivalent of the massive sulfide intercept in hole RC-1-99. The target is enhanced by coincident airborne conductivity, IP and copper soil (SMX) anomalies. The presence of bona-fide VMS mineralization at San Jeronimo is highly encouraging. This mineralization is distinct from and probably older than the extensive silver-lead-zinc mineralization along the Loreto vein system. Detailed ground geophysics will be conducted to better define this target prior to further drilling. 

Stockwork/VMS target.  Hole RC-4-99 was drilled about 1,500 feet southwest of hole RC-3-99
to test a northeasterly trending splay of the Loreto vein. The hole intersected three zones of highly anomalous silver-lead-zinc mineralization. The upper zone is probably vein-related, but the two
lower zones appear to be VMS-style mineralization. More drilling will be required to determine the extent and significance of this mineralization. 

Press Release 15Oct99
WWWinfo

Corporate Brochure Jan99