Barksdale Capital, the company who has proposed drilling in the Patagonia Mountains in the Flux Canyon area, purchased another set of unpatented claims in August 2019 on U.S. Forest Service land off Duquesne Road, abutting claims in the Hermosa Project.
Called the San Antonio Project, these claims cover approximately 6300 acres and are 100% owned by Barksdale Capital. In a November press release the company announced its plans to pursue exploration of San Antonio Project.
Rick Trotman, the CEO of Barksdale Capital, said that this area, which is covered with gravel, has never been drilled before. Geological surveys indicate that there may be an anomaly in this area and therefore could contain high grade minerals similar to South32’s Hermosa project and at the Sunnyside site.
Barksdale is in initial conversation with the Forest Service on what permitting to pursue to explore the San Antonio claims further. They will have a roadmap for their exploratory drilling early in 2020.
Barksdale has also purchased the option to acquire 100% interest in a 760-acre parcel of unpatented claims, surrounded by South32’s unpatented claims, called the Four Metals project. According to their website, “Two targets exist at Four Metals including the Red Hills deposit, which is a copper-molybdenum-silver-gold bearing breccia pipe as well as a deeper conceptual porphyry copper target.” However, Trotman said for the time being they are not pursuing exploratory drilling in this area and are focused on the San Antonio and Sunnyside projects.
In the meantime, the Forest Service is preparing a summary of the public comments for the Sunnyside Exploratory Drilling project.