Casablanca Mining Constitutes Majority of Mining Claims at Casuto, Its Flagship Gold Property in Chi

Updated

Casablanca Mining Constitutes Majority of Mining Claims at Casuto, Its Flagship Gold Property in Chile

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- CASABLANCA MINING (OTCQX: CUAU) announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Santa Teresa Minerals, S.A., has completed constituting a majority of its mining claims at its Casuto Gold Property ("the Property"). The Property is located in IV Region Coquimbo, Choapa Province, Chile. The property is situated 20 km north of the city of Los Vilos, 215 km south of the city of Coquimbo-La Serena and 195 km northwest of the city of Santiago, the capital of Chile. The Property is readily accessible from the city of Coquimbo-La Serena or the city of Los Vilos.

There are 2 types of mining claims, exploration (searching in small amounts) and exploitation (5,000 cubic meters per month initially and above 5,000 cubic meters per month after permits are approved). Constitution is the final process in perfecting mining claims in Chile. It is the goal of the company to have 100% of its Casuto claims constituted for exploitation in 2013. Here is a breakdown of the exploitation and exploration claims Santa Teresa has constituted or pending constitution at Casuto:


Constituted Exploitation Claims (900 hectares in total)

Tauros 1-5 are constituted and Tauro 6 is manifested and pending constitution.
Los Azules 1-3 are constituted.
8/9 of the claims covering 900 hectares are fully constituted for exploitation (this means 8 X 5,000 c/m per month = 40,000 c/m per month immediately after property access rights are completed).

11 Chipi claims are already manifested for exploitation and are pending constitution.
11 Chipi claims are in the process of being manifested for exploitation.

Constituted Exploration Claims (5,300 hectares in total)

22 Chipi claims are all fully constituted for exploration.

43-101 Technical Report on Casuto:

The 43-101 report work was conducted under the supervision of Michael Thompson, HBSc, P.Geo. and Caitlin Jeffs, HSBc, P.Geo. of Fladgate Exploration and is detailed in a National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") technical report on the Property entitled "Independent Technical Report Casuto Project IV Region Coquimbo, Chile (the "Technical Report"). The complete Technical Report is available at:

http://casablancamining.com/files/Casuto_43_101_Final_7-13-11.pdf

The Casuto Project is comprised of 22 contiguous exploration concessions or "pedimentos" totaling 6,200 hectares. All concessions are registered in the name of, and owned 100% by, Santa Teresa Minerals S.A., a 100% owned and subsidiary of Casablanca Mining. The deposit is thought to extend through the valley and into Chigualoco Bay for a total length of approximately 13km. Abundant historic pits, shafts and underground workings are evidence of the historical exploitation on the project. The historic workings cover approximately 4km of the 13km long valley.

There are two gold bearing units on the Casuto Project, the higher grade cirque and the lower grade alluvial sediments. The cirque is a gold rich layer where fine gold particles have collected in cracks and pits on the surface of the bedrock. The Casuto alluvial sediments are located in the Casuto-Chigualoco River basin and estuary and on glacial river terraces all deposited through a series of erosive events. The Casuto-Chigualoco River basin and estuary has been protected from sea tides through the evolution of the river and this has created a basin where gold, being carried by the river, has been deposited instead of being carried out to sea. The source of the gold is thought to be high grade gold veins in the surrounding intrusive rocks of Jurassic age.

From 1836 to 1846, the population of the Casuto area reached 6,000 workers and had a town with more than 40 stores and trading houses. No formal records can be found stating how much gold was produced during this time, but verbal history say that daily production was between 11 and 22 kg of gold. The Casuto gold boom lasted until 1846 and then began to slow down. Two things contributed to the decline in production in the area. Sediments were being taken from shafts sunk into thick sedimentary units and many of the shafts were reaching the water table making exploitation difficult.

Monge's Memorandum on Mining Claims Held: Compania Minera Casuto indicates that numerous small operators mined in the Casuto area between 1900 and 1950. These operations were not large and reports indicate grades between 1g/m3 and 4.2g/m3. Operations were difficult due to scarcity of water. The largest operation reported during this time was in 1906 when an English engineer named William Murray formed a company to work the Casuto deposit. Murray's company dug 1200 pits with depths between 3 and 5m without reaching bedrock. The average grade reported from these pits was 4.2 g/m3 (Consultores Geologicos Asociados, 2010).

In 1980 a preliminary study was performed on the Casuto area over a period of 15 days. Two crews of two men collected a total of 940 soil samples during this period. No sample locations or sample descriptions were recorded for these 940 samples, but a report states that results showed between 8 and 15g/t gold (Honour, 1980). The area covered during this study included the Casuto-Chigualoco River basin and the mountains surrounding the basin.

In early 2010 Consultores Geológicos Asociado took five alluvial samples on the property. Samples were taken and washed in a sluice box to concentrate heavy particles. The heavy particle concentrate was then sent to CIMM laboratories in Santiago for analysis of gold content. Results of this analysis show alluvial gold concentration ranging from 0.514g/m3 to 0.650g/m3 gold.

Juan Carlos Camus, CEO, said, "Casuto has historically been one of the largest gold properties in Chile. We are continuing our exploration of the property and intend to pursue additional drilling programs to demonstrate the potential value of the property."

Qualified Person

The Qualified Person and author for this report is Caitlin Jeffs, Vice President of Fladgate and a geologist in good standing with the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario (APGO #1488). Caitlin Jeffs has 9 years experience in the mineral exploration industry, specializing in GIS and geological 3D modeling and program management. Caitlin Jeffs completed a site visit to the property on April 2nd, 2011 and wrote portions of all sections of this report.

The report is co-authored by Michael Thompson, Fladgate's President and Principal Geologist, and a geologist in good standing with the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario (APGO # 1521). Michael Thompson has more than 13 years of experience in the mineral exploration industry, specializing in the structural interpretation of Archean terranes. Michael Thompson has written, or co-written, technical reports; including NI 43-101 compliant independent technical reports. Michael Thompson completed a site visit to the Casuto project on April 1st, 2011 and contributed to the interpretations and conclusions and the recommendations sections of this report.

About Casablanca Mining, Ltd.:

Casablanca Mining (OTCQX: CUAU), through its wholly owned subsidiary Santa Teresa Minerals, S.A., engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and operation of precious metal properties in South America. Its gold mining operations are based near Santiago, Chile. Santa Teresa Minerals currently has, directly and indirectly through various equity interests, mining rights in exploration projects, "Free Gold," the "Casuto Project," consisting of Los Azules 1-3, Tauro 1-6, Los Chipi 1-22 and the "New Gold Project," consisting of Los Pinos 1-30 and Teresita 1-20. These projects include more than 80 different mining and mineral exploration properties. The Company also has a 50/50 revenue-share at the operational "Las Dichas" alluvial gold mine. Santa Teresa Minerals also owns a 60% equity position in a company with the rights to a revolutionary mining technology that extracts copper from raw mining materials using a proprietary and patented electrolysis method of electromining.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT: This press release contains forward-looking statements, including expected industry patterns and other financial and business results and estimates that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from results or estimates expressed or implied by this press release. Such risk factors include, among others: whether Casablanca Mining can successfully execute its operating plan, including mining and exploration projects; results of exploration, project development and capital costs of mineral properties; volatility of market prices for gold, copper and copper sulfate; Casablanca Mining's ability to integrate acquired companies and technology; Casablanca Mining's ability to retain key employees; general market conditions; and other factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in its annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements in this press release. Casablanca Mining does not undertake any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results.



Casablanca Mining, Ltd.
Thomas Ronk, President
619-717-8047
tom@casablancamining.com

KEYWORDS: United States North America South America Chile California

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:

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