Durango is one of the 31 constituent states of Mexico. It is considered the "Hollywood of Mexico". Hundreds of movies (mostly westerns) have been filmed in Durango over the past hundred years dating back to the time of silent films. These films include:

• The Unforgiven (1959; Audrey Hepburn, Burt Lancaster);
• The Sons of Katie Elder (1965; John Wayne, Dean Martin);
• The War Wagon (1966; John Wayne. Kirk Douglas);
• Hour of the Gun (1966; James Garner, Rob Ryan);
• The Wild Bunch (1968; Bill Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Rob Ryan);
• Chisum (1969; John Wayne);
• True Grit (1969; John Wayne, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper);
• Big Jake (1970; John Wayne);
• Buck and the Preacher (1971; Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier);
• Something Big (1971; Burt Bacharach, Dean Martin);
• The Devil's Rain (1975; Ernest Borgnine, John Travolta);
• Goin' South (1977; Jack Nicholson, Christopher Lloyd, John Belushi, Danny De Vito);
• Romancing the Stone (1983; Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner);
• License to Kill (1988: Timothy Dalton);
• First Knight (1995; Sean Conner, Richard Gere);
• The Mask of Zorro (1997; Steven Spielberg, Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones); and
• Bandidas (2004; Penélope Cruz, Selma Hayek)

Most recently, the Mexican newspaper El Norte reported that 20th Century Fox will film 85% of the upcoming Dragon Ball Z movie in Durango under the direction of James Wong.

While many have and continue to seek Hollywood gold in Durango, others go after the real stuff.

Mexico Gold

The famous Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range occupies the western and central part of Durango state. This mountain range contains a good supply of minerals, including the gold and silver, which encouraged Spanish occupation of the territory after it was discovered.

Modern day explorers still search for the elusive precious metals, which have caused obsession in men and nations, destroyed some cultures and gave power to others. These include:

• Silver Standard Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: SSRI, TSX: SSO)
• Orko Silver Corp. (TSX-V: OK)
• Castle Gold Corp. (TSX-V: CSG)
• UC Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: UC)
• Soho Resources Corp. (TSX-V: SOH)
• Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX-V: ASM, OTCBB: ASGMF)
• Endeavour Silver Corp. (AMEX: EXK, TSX: EDR)
• Silver Dragon Resources Inc. (OTCBB: SDRG)
• Orex Minerals Inc. (TSX-V: REX)
• Canasil Resources Inc. (TSX-V: CLZ)
• Silver Shield Resources Inc. (TSX-V: SSR)

One company exploring for gold and silver in Durango that has recently gained particular investor attention is Geologix Explorations Inc. (TSX-V: GIX).

Geologix's flagship San Agustin property is located about an hour north of the city of Durango. The property was optioned in August 2006 with the objective of exploring for a large tonnage polymetallic gold, silver, lead, zinc deposit.

In 2004, Silver Standard Resources Inc. commissioned a National Instrument 43-101 compliant technical report on the San Agustin property using 14,290 meters of drilling in 93 drill holes. The report has identified an inferred resource of 11.22 million tonnes averaging 0.96 grams per tonne of gold and 12.86 grams per tonne of silver at a 0.5 g/t cut off. This is equal to about 346,000 ounces of gold and 4.6 million ounces of silver.

Geologix believes that this gold and silver resource is hosted within a much large zone of mineralization of significantly larger and higher grade extent. So in late 2006 the company began further exploration work to expand the resource base.

Geologix's Phase I exploration work was successful in encouraging additional expenditures with a Phase II exploration program commencing in the 2nd quarter of 2007.

The Phase II program concentrated on drill testing the property according to the option agreement with Silver Standard. Completion of this drilling allowed the company to prepare the gold and silver resource calculation for the purchase of the property from Silver Standard.

Additional geophysics, trenching and drilling outside of the option agreement stipulations was also initiated to discover and define the potential for additional tonnage beyond the option terms and preliminary metallurgical test work was completed to identify the quality of the mineralization for processing in an economic manner.

The first two programs overall were been extremely successful in all areas. Drilling has shown that polymetallic grades on average are potentially economic and with increasing drill hole density higher grade portions of the deposit are being discovered, mineralization remains open in all directions and consistency of mineralization and grades continues to encourage Geologix.

Trenching has also been very successful in outlining a mineralized area 2.2 kilometers in length and up to 1 kilometer in width. Trenching continues to be a technically successful exploration method. The project continues to expand as work progresses.

Geologix recently initiated a 20,000-meter Phase III drilling program at San Agustin. Highlights of the results from the ongoing Phase III program include:

• 312.90 meters grading 0.49 g/t gold, 23.12 g/t silver, 0.15% lead, and 0.81% zinc, including 94.85 meters grading 0.54 g/t gold, 27.15 g/t silver, 0.23% lead, 1.25% zinc;
• 206.50 meters grading 0.57 g/t gold, 13.96 g/t silver, 0.06% lead, 0.93% zinc; and
• 127.80 meters grading 0.29 g/t gold, 19.80 g/t silver, 0.12% lead, 0.91% zinc.

This morning Geologix reported further Phase III results that included:

• 178.30 meters grading 0.62 g/t gold,19.62 g/t silver, 0.13% lead, 0.81% zinc; and
• 144.00 meters grading 0.31 g/t gold, 25.19 g/t silver, 0.22% lead, 1.49% zinc

The San Agustin project remains attractive to Geologix and investors due to the potential of the mineralized system to develop into a sizable tonnage gold and silver deposit.

- Gold World Staff

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