New Project Generation

Our discovery success has been built on the strength of our exploration teams – generating new projects is an essential ingredient to continue that organic growth. To that end we have exploration crews active in Mexico and Peru, the countries we know best, and are actively seeking properties elsewhere in Latin America's "Rim of Fire" .

Mexico:  We have recently acquired seven properties from the A-T Group that lie within the highly prospective Sierra Madre and Altiplano regions of Durango and Chihuahua states -- home to some of the country’s most recent gold and silver exploration successes. Discovery drilling has now begun. The seven properties increase Esperanza’s Mexican exploration portfolio to ten. These are in addition to the advanced stage Cerro Jumil project in central Mexico, which is quickly advancing towards the resource definition stage.

Peru:  We are also very active in Peru where we have redeployed the geologic team that found San Luis. We have seven properties, two of which are being readied for drilling in 2008. Prospecting in Peru is concentrated in two areas:

We have staked claims  in the Huancavelica area of south-central Peru where additional grassroots work is targeting new areas for staking. 

Further north in the vicinity of San Luis, we have acquired two additional claim blocks, Abra Roja and Camparuri, which are within the same geologic environment but outside the Silver Standard joint venture. Reconnaissance with follow-up mapping and sampling is underway.

Our claims in the Huancavelica and San Luis regions are held 100% by Esperanza.

Our Teams:  A successful exploration company is built on the experience, intuition and achievements of its geologists – we have 12 such people in the company. Esperanza’s current structure consists of three teams: the management team (all geologists) in Denver and in-country teams in Mexico and Peru, covering South America. All of us have spent years in the field in Latin America’s “Rim of Fire”, our primary exploration target.