GEOLOGY:NEITA

The Neita Property covers an area of 25,221 hectares in the rugged Central Cordillera of northwestern Dominican Republic.

The upper Cretaceous volcanoclastic Tireo formation covers basically the entire Neita Property. The Tireo belt extends for 290 kms in a northwest-southeast direction along the grain of the island. This volcanic sedimentary sequence was intruded by plutonic rocks that range from felsic to ultramafics and are thought to be related in the Neita Area to the nearby Loma de Cabrera Batholith.

Two major structural trends are present in the area. The older trend is NW-SE and is part of the grain of the island as a result of the early tectonics of the island. The younger trend is NE-SW and displaces the older trend. This younger fault pattern is thought to be the pathway for the hydrothermal solutions that formed the gold mineralization and deposits of the Tireo formation.

Two types of mineralization are generally recognized in the Neita area for precious metals. The first type shows fine-grained disseminated pyrite with rare pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite but no gold is present. The second type carries sulphides such as chalcopyrite, sphalerite, pyrite and galena with gold and silver contained in the sulphides. At the Candelones West deposit, two mineralizing events are recognized: the first being a pervasive fine-grained pyrite without gold with rare inclusions of chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite, and the second being a stockwork containing chalcopyrite, sphalerite, pyrite, galena plus gold and silver.

More than ten mineralized areas have been identified in the Neita Property. At least four mineralized areas contain high copper potential but low precious metal values. At least 6 other gold in soil prospects (El Corozo, Cerro Berro, Vasa de Vaca, Neita, Montazo-Guano and Candelones) have been under study at different time periods with an exploration emphasis in precious metals.

Two areas, Montazo and Guano are large gold in soil anomalies with a few trenches containing gold up to 0.56 g/t over 64 meters (MT02) and 0.42 g/t over 22 meters (GT01), and with eight scattered drill holes with grades up to 0.44 g/t gold over 16 meters (SM01).

The gold deposit at Candelones is an epithermal vein system with low sulphidation. It is considered to be hot springs type, in a low-sulphidation quartz-adularia-sericite volcano sedimentary rock sequence. The gold mineralization occurs within a stock work containing chalcopyrite, sphalerite, pyrite, galena, plus gold and silver. On the Candelones gold in soil anomaly, trenching results included 0.73 g/t gold over 44 meters (CTO4). Diamond drilling intersections were obtained of up to 1.12 g/t gold over 106 meters (SC18). The French Government's Bureau of Research of Geology and Mining (BRGM), who carried out the work, defined a historical mineral, open pittable resource of 5 million tonnes grading 1.1 g/t gold containing an estimated 160,000 ounces based on only 22 shallow diamond drill holes. The oxidized upper zone averages about 26 meters in thickness, and there is significant potential to increase the tonnage of this deposit both at depth and along the strike.