The Guadalupe Production Centre is located in the Royal Mines of Zacualpan Silver District, Mexico.
Zacualpan is one of the oldest mining districts in North America with Spanish Colonial mining dating back to at least 1527. In 1531, it was the first mining district in the Americas to be given the title of 'Royal Mines' of Zacualpan by proclamation under the Spanish Crown.
Silver mineralization at Zacualpan is of the class known as silver-rich intermediate sulphidation epithermal vein deposits. Many of the largest and best known silver mines in Mexico belong to this class including mines San Ramon Mine, Mirasol Mine, Cuchara-Oscar Mine and others.
These deposits occur as veins and less commonly as breccia bodies and disseminations or stockworks. Mineralization usually consists of pyrite with variable sphalerite, galena and various silver and gold minerals in a dominantly quartz and carbonate matrix. Vertical extent of economic mineralization averages about 300m but is known to vary from 100m to 960m.
Most economic mineralization in the Zacualpan Mining District is associated with northwest and north-south trending vein structures. These vein structures can often be traced for many kilometers across the district but economic mineralization occurs as mineralized shoots in structurally favourable sections along the trace of the vein structures. The main ore shoots mined over the last 30 years have dimensions of 2-6m in width, 30-150m i ........
