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Placer Dome Corporation.

Placer Dome Inc.   PDG   (TSE)   (MSE)   (NYSE)   Paris, Basil, Zurich , etc.


Mexican Subsidiary is Empresa Minera Can Mex S.A. de C.V.

El Oro Gold District, Mexico. Placer Dome enters agreement with Wheaton River Minerals over El Oro Au-Ag Project, Mexico Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. ("Wheaton") (TSX:WRM - News) is pleased to announce the signing of an agreement with Placer Dome CLA Ltd. ("Placer") on the El Oro Project, 150 kilometres northwest of Mexico City, in Mexico. The agreement calls for Placer to conduct exploration on the project, with staged expenditures of US$4 million by December 1, 2006 to earn a 75% interest. Placer can earn a further 10% interest by completing a bankable feasibility study. Upon completion of the feasibility study, Wheaton will also have the right to purchase back 10%, effectively maintaining its position at 25%. 

The El Oro Project was acquired by Wheaton as one of the more than 40 exploration projects throughout Mexico included in the Minas Luismin, S.A. de C.V. acquisition, completed on June 19, 2002. El Oro is well known as one of the best examples of a world class bonanza style epithermal gold-silver vein system, with historic production totalling over 8 million ounces of gold and 110 million ounces of silver. The last significant production from the El Oro camp was in the 1920's, and modern exploration methods have yet to be tested in the area. Placer intends to employ proprietary exploration methods in the search for parallel vein systems. 

Press Release 15Oct02

Mulatos/Escondida Gold Deposit, Sonora. Sold 100% in December, 2000. Was the operator of 70/30 JV with KCC of OP/HL Au deposit located in 35,900 Ha property position in SE Sonora north of Yecora.  (MBD 8/96 lists Placer's interest in Mulatos as only 50%?) A large scale Au project in the Sierra Madres N of Yecora with final feasibility study completed in early 1997 Ready for production decision early in 1997. Plans were initially to put Mulatos into production at around 100,000 oz/yr, but mine development that has been deferred as of 31Dec97 indefinately due to low gold prices. Prior to figuring in any of the new Escondida Resource Placer carried their 70% share of Mulatos in their inventory at 23,486,000 tonnes at 0.9 gpt or around 20,000 kg of Au (around 648,000 ounces). Placer and KCC vended this asset to National Gold Corporation on 27Dec00 to get their piece of a $50 million dollar tax write off. 

Press Release 27Jul98

Ken Ballweg, Mulatos Project Senior Geologist presented a Technical Paper and Core Shack display at the PDAC in Toronto in March, 1997. The story is that they have re-interpreted the genetic model to be one of largely strata-bound and stratiform control in a volcanic agglometate and breccia horizon with favorable permeability and an impermeable caprock. The following abstract is from that conference.

STORY: The Mulatos deposit is one of the largest undeveloped high-sulfidation type gold deposits in the world with a 3.5 MM Oz gold resource. The Escondida Zone; a recent discovery of stratiform, stratabound mineralization concealed below post mineral volcanic cover and landslide debris should expand the resource by more than 1.0 MM ounces.

GEOLOGY: The Mulatos district is located within the Sierra Madre Occidental volcanic province between the lower and upper volcanic series. Lower series rocks are predominantly comprised of andesitic flows and tuffs; while the upper series consists of bimodal rhyolitic ashflow tuffs and basaltic volcanic rocks. The lower series rocks do not host significant mineralization while the upper series rocks are largely post-mineral. Gold deposits are localized within dacitic dome complexes sub-aerially emplaced during the time period seperating the lower and upper volcanic series. Regional bedding attitudes are NW striking with shallow NE dips. Post mineral normal faulting has resulted in repitition of the favorable lower/upper series contact across the property. Most dacitic dome complex rocks are strongly altered. to an advanced argillic assemblage, with alteration zoning from propylitic to illite/smectite to kaolinite to pyrophyllite + alunite to vuggy silica. Gold mineralization is largely hosted within vuggy silica alteration and proximal pyrophyllite alteration. Gold is controlled b a combination of NE structure and favorable stratigraphy. Recent work has identified the primary gold host for the northern portion of the Mulatos deposit to be a volcanoclastic conglomerate formed from partial erosion and destruction of the dome complex. The conglomerate was deposited in a steep-walled basin with 200-300m of relief. Basin fill sediments fine upward and outward, with silicic alteration and gold primarily confined to coarse-grained clast-supported facies. The highest grade gold concentrations occur directly above the basal unconformity. Vuggy-silica clasts within argillized matrix-supported conglomerate indicate that at least one stage of alteration/mineralization predated the erosional event.

DEPOSITS: The Mulatos deposit is a large epithermal, high sulfidation, disseminated gold deposit. A geological resource of 102.5 M tonnes grading 1.04 gpt at a 0.5 gpt cutoff was identified during the 1996 feasibility study. A drilling program in late 1997 designed to test for resource extensiuons discovered the Escondida Zone NE of the existing resource area. The zone is completely concealed beneath landslide material and post-mineral volcanic rocks, and is believed to e the faulted extension of the high-grade historic workings. The zone is stratiform and stratibound, hosted within coarse-grained volcanoclastic conglomeratic rocks, and has a maximum thickness of 100m. Gold mineralization is hosted within vuggy silica alteration, and in pyrophyllite-dominant advanced argillic alteration below the vuggy silica zone. Additional drilling in 1998 extended the zone 1.3km to the NE and established continuity with the El Victor resource area, for a total of 1.7km total strike length for the new mineralized area. The El Victor resource area is now believed to be the lateral extension of the Mulatos deposit, rather than a seperate, younger and smaller system. The resource is in the process of being calculated, but preliminary indications are for a minimum resource addition of 25M tonnes at 1.35 gpt, for an additional 1.0M oz. Two near-surface high-grade zones have potential to significantly enhance the economics of the Mulatos deposit. The zone remains open to the NE.

PDAC March, 1999

El Realito-Carrizo Ridge Au Property, Sonora Optioned a 70% interest in western 1/3 of Laminco's San Antonio de la Huerta property near Tonochi, Sonora. Put a surface use agreement into place in January, 1999. Mapping and sampling being conducted by Can Mex geologists 1Q99 with plans to drill soon after several weeks of intensive access preparation and detailed geologic study of the various targets.

Laminco Press Release 21Jan99

Was exploring near Alamos on Au-Ag property near War Eagle's La Fortuna, Sonora property.

GCN #163(see War Eagle) 22Aug96
MBD May, 96