The annual production of the province, including the operating mines in the Parcoy district amounted to 360,000 ouncesin 2000, which represented one tenth of the gold supply of Peru. Structural analysis of the deposits outlines four synchronoussets of mineralized fractures in the Pataz district. The predominantnorth- to northwest-striking, east- to northeast-dipping system,which is generally located in reactivated reverse faults, accountsfor more than 80 percent of the gold resource of the district.
The Eastern Peruvian Cordillera is the host of a major Carbonifeours belt of shear-zone hosted, auriferous quartz veins. The major mining districts are Pataz and Parcoy in the north, and the Huachón district located 400 km to the south is interpreted as the southern extension of this belt. Previous investigations have interpreted these auriferous vein systems as orogenic gold deposits, however there is still an open debate about a possible magmatic link.
The gold-bearing veins are emplaced along NNW-oriented and NE-E dipping brittle-ductile shear zones, within or along the western margin of a granodioriticbatholith. Preliminary observations indicate that the orebodies share similar structural, paragenetic and hydrothermal alteration characteristics in all three districts. Typically, an early milky quartz-pyrite-arsenopyrite stage is followed by blue-grey quartz-galena-sphalerite- native gold, and a final barren calcite-quartz stage, accompanied by sericite, chlorite and carbonate alteration of the host rocks. The similarities support the existence of a 400 km long gold belt along the Eastern Cordillera.
Geology of Pataz
The Pataz gold province is situated 500 km north of Lima on the Eastern Cordillera of the North Peruvian Andes, and constitutes the northernmost part of a Carboniferous mesothermal Au and Sb belt, which extends along the entire cordillera down to northern Argentina.
The Pataz mineralized belt covers an area 160 km long and 1 to 3 km wide, extending first along the eastern side of the Marañón Valley from Bolívar to Pataz then striking southeastwards to the Parcoy and Buldibuyo districts. It includes numerous quartz-sulfide veins, located within the external part of the granodioritic Pataz Batholith close to the contact with a Pre-Carboniferous basement. The grades in the oreshoots vary between 7 to 15 Au g/t, exceptionally up to 120 Au g/t.
Being a restart and producing mine, there should be production and revenues flowing soon after the restart of he mine.
Both projects have processing costs contracted at a flat rate of $250 per ton. Mineralization is typical of the Pataz geological complexion with the gold being associated with sulfides in quartz at the present penetration of just over 1km.
Infrastructure includes level tunneling on multiple levels with ore shoots, a railway present and industrial power on site with maintained roads.
The name of the mine is "North American", which is located on the district of Pataz in the area of La Libridad, Peru. The geological formation is known as the PatazBatholith. This gold belt hosts the world's richest gold deposit at Cajamarca where the US owned Yanacocha mine has produced over US$7 billion in gold.
Spectrum’s "North American" mine includes a gallery of quartz veins some as wide as 3 meters across, which has continuous production since the 15th century.
