The Taron Property consists of five (5) Contiguous Mineral Tenures. The Tenures are registered to Cascadero Minerals S.A. (CMSA), which is 100% owned by Cascadero Minerals Corporation (CMC), a Canadian Company, which is 70% owned by Cascadero Copper Corporation (CCD) and 30 % owned by Regberg Ltd. (RB). CMC operates as a 70% CCD and 30% RB joint venture.
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Summary:
Deposit Types
The Taron deposit represents a new class of alkali metal deposit enriched in cesium with anomalous concentrations of rubidium, arsenic, cobalt, thallium, silver, manganese, lithium, and zinc. The deposit was formed in basement rocks during a Miocene epithermal event which erupted in geyser activity and travertine formation (Trueman et al, 2020). A variety of minerals, colloids, glasses and clays collectively termed “geyserites” were formed within the porous sandstones and conglomerates of the Ochaqui Basin. There is evidence of paleo microbial activity leading to selective enrichment of cesium.
Mineralisation
The Faja Eruptiva and Puncoviscana Group have been stacked by over thrust faulting and display protocataclastic to cataclastic fabrics which predate the epithermal mineralising event. The epithermal event, of Miocene age, metasomatised those preexisting rocks forming assemblages of cryptocrystalline silica, colloids, gels, manganates, arsenates, and oxides (collectively termed “geyserites”) and travertine within the porous sediments of the Ochaqui Basin.
The main zone of +200ppm cesium mineralisation lies in the Core and North Zones which cover a 700m x 1,500m area intermittently exposed over a vertical range of 80m to 100m. Within this zone, the average Cs grade based on the 2017 drill results is about 1,400ppm Cs. Rb is closely correlated with Cs and averages about 220ppm.
A sample from trench 109WW was submitted to SGS Mineral Services for petrographic, XRD, and SEM study (Hamilton, 2005). The initial sample analyses ran 7% Mn, 5% As, and 2% Cs. The study concluded the following:
- Arsenate cements account for about 25% of the sample and Mn-oxyhydroxides another 5%.
- Mn reports as both Mn-oxyhydroxides and as a suite of Ca-Fe- and Ca-Mn-Arsenate hydrate minerals, probably wallkilldellite. Only about 15% of Mn reports as Ca-Mn-Arsenate in the sample.
- Remaining Mn reports mostly as cryptomelane in massive form as well as radiating, concentrically banded Mn-oxyhydroxides. Among these minerals, coronadite, hollandite, and romanechite have been confirmed by XRD.
- There is a complex suite of arsenate mineral present, ranging from ludlockite, wallkilldellite and its Fe-analogue as well as pharmacosiderite, and yukonite.
- Cs reports predominantly as a Cs-substituted pharmacosiderite at levels of up to 12% Cs in this phase. Mixtures of Cs-pharmacosiderite and other phases are also present and as a result, producing a pure Cs-pharmacosiderite concentrate is unlikely.
A petrographic/SEM study was also performed on a thallium-bearing sample of conglomeratic sandstone containing 2,849ppm Tl (Le Couteur, 2009). No thallium minerals could be identified. The minerals wallkilldellite, cryptomelane and several other arsenic-bearing minerals were identified as cements deposited in interstices between detrital grains. It was suggested that Tl may be present in substitution in these minerals.
Statistical analysis of the sample data shows that thallium is not correlated with cesium but has a strong correlation to manganese. Crittenden et al (1962), discussed the presence of thallium in some manganese oxides and in manganese nodules. In their conclusion, they state ‘It seems probable that thallium is firmly fixed in the lattice of naturally occurring manganese oxides, presumably replacing potassium, barium, and lead’.
Dimensions
The extents of the Taron deposit cover an area of 700m plan width and 1500m along strike, with mineralisation occurring at surface to a depth of 80m-100m.
The deposit is divided into a core and north zone.