Tell us about your reputation as a South American specialist.
I've worked for approximately thirty years in the South America region. I feel completely at ease, at home with the people, who I've found to be very warm hearted, very sociable, and good professionals. I've developed an understanding of the South American business way, and over the years I've worked for a number of companies, major companies, setting up the Shell Billiton office in the early ?90s, moving on with Antofagasta Holdings, and then for eleven years, with International Minerals Corporation. I've actually lived in about six countries: Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela and Costa Rica, and for the last thirteen years I've lived in Ecuador, which is Mariana's operational base.
What are the strengths of the Mariana team, John?
Well, as you know, exploration is a bit of a gamble on the people and I think with Mariana we have five, practical, down to earth directors who are all geologists, all with a discovery record. The most recent addition to the board was Ray Angus who joined about three months ago. Ray was a co-founder of the very successful, AIM listed, Monterrico Minerals. Other members of the team, on the ground, that deserve a special mention are Walter Espinosa, our man in Chile who is a former Barrick Gold Corporation country manager and in Argentina we have a very bright, young, PhD geologist, Gustavo Rodriguez, who I stole from a good friend of mine in Venezuela.
So John, what is the Mariana Resources? business model?
We'd like to see Mariana participate in - through a joint venture or royalty arrangement - mining projects which are based on our discoveries. We see ourselves as explorers, not miners. We would take these projects through to pre-feasibility, or possibly feasibility stage, and then bring in an experienced South American Miner - somebody like the Hochschild Mining Group, for example. This was the model that we adopted in the case of the Pallancata silver discovery, which we made with International Minerals. We joined forces with Hochschild, after completing the advanced exploration phase, and they took the project into production on a sixty-forty joint venture basis.
I noticed you had an announcement out today about a project in Chile. Tell us about what you?re up to in Chile.
Yes, the announcement today was in reference to the Buenaventura iron oxide copper-gold project. For this we joined forces with an Australian company, Minotaur, and Mariana and Minotaur have optioned the agreement from the Chilean company. It is a very large concession, over forty square kilometres with three known centres of mineralisation which have been partly drill tested, with some significant copper intersections. A large part of the area is covered by gravel plain, with scope for further discoveries between these limited outcrops. For this we will be using geophysical methods; in particular, the gravity geophysical method. Minotaur have specialist expertise in this area - they were responsible for the very notable, Prominent Hill discovery in South Australia, which is now being developed by Oxiana. Chile is one of the - I?d say the - prominent IOCG district in the world. The largest deposit is Candelaria with over a billion tonnes of, close to one per cent copper and significant gold credits. Also, in Chile we have another project, one hundred per cent Mariana, the Perro Chico project, which is copper scarn in an IOCG setting. We believe that the area surrounding the limiting outcrops has potential for an IOCG discovery. Again we?ll be using gravity to test those tenements.
I notice the word ?bonanza? in one your releases about a project in Argentina. Tell us about your situation and plans in Argentina.
I believe we have a major silver discovery in the making, on our Sierra Blanca project, which is a joint venture with IAMGOLD Corporation. This is located in the mining-friendly Santa Cruz Province down in Patagonia. It?s a 25km long epithermal vein system with exceptional silver grades. We have recorded up to 7 kilograms per tonne silver. The best interval that we have in surface channel sampling is over 9 metres true thickness, running at 2300 grams per tonne silver. We plan to drill the property in September. The concession area is partly covered by recent volcanic cover, there?s scope for lots more discoveries there. It is our flagship project and a very exciting one, and I think you?ll see some very interesting results come out of there, later on in the year, once we get the drills turning.
Would you like to say something about the recent Argentinean export tax?
Yes, the export tax - it?s a rather confusing situation. It?s not just limited to mining but also applies to agricultural products - it?s very unpopular, and not only that but it is actually unconstitutional because the legislation was never actually ratified by Congress. It is being challenged. I believe the government has taken note of opposition to the export tax and I think we will see some modifications to that in the future. But in the meantime, provinces like Santa Cruz remain premier exploration destinations. There are scores of drill rigs turning and half a dozen world class discoveries have come out of this relatively small province, to date.
What is Mariana?s situation in Ecuador?
Mariana?s a small company with very ambitious plans and we realize that we can?t do everything that we want. So, especially with the success in Argentina and the recent projects developing in Chile, we?ve decided to progress our Ecuador projects through joint ventures. We already have a joint venture with Apex Silver and that is giving very, very encouraging results. We have another joint venture with a Canadian company, Dynasty Metals and Mining, and we shall be seeking joint ventures on our remaining projects in our Ecuadorian portfolio. Ecuador is a rather complex country to understand. The new government is undertaking major reforms, including the Constitution. There will be a new mining law issued in the near future, and I believe that President Correa will ensure that the required legislation is in place for Ecuador to develop a very significant mining industry, to replace the dwindling oil revenues.
Tell Us about Mariana?s financial situation, please.
Yes, we have about 1.3 US$ million, in the bank. As you will have appreciated, this year is going to be a fairly ambitious year for Mariana, and we have fairly advanced plans, in hand, to cover our financial requirements, through to the end of the year.
Do you think that the AIM market understands Mariana and South America?
AIM is not a very liquid market. AIM investors do tend to follow the African stories much more closely than the South American stories. However, as we?ve seen with South American explorers like Monterrico Minerals and Brancote, their major discoveries were given full credit by AIM. We are confident that as it becomes clear that we have a major discovery on our hands, AIM will recognize us.
Where do you hope to see Mariana in five years? time, John?
I would like to see two or three major exploration successes, with Mariana sharing in the upside by joining forces with a South American miner - somebody like the Hochschild Group or Buenaventura, the Peruvian mining company. This is what we would like to see.