San Judas lies 43 kilometers WSW of San Francisco (2.5MozAu) and 69 km to the SSE of El Chanate mine (Alamos Gold Inc.)(1.5MozAu). Although there is no history of formal exploration in the past, there is an abundance of shallow mining works in hard rock from placer deposits by small scale prospector-miners and there has been undocumented reporting of big gold nugget extraction.
Magna geologists have been mapping and sampling several historical gold mines at the property. These efforts have been expanded to include both adjacent and parallel structures to numerous historical pre-existing mining trends there. The workings span several kilometers across San Judas, and to date Magna’s work has yielded positive findings.
Initial prospecting work was carried out by Timmins Gold Corp’s exploration team on invitation from the concessionaire in 2009. Results prompted the company to negotiate an exploration agreement without success due to property owner demands (information available). In 2019, Agnico Eagle collected over 550 rock chip and soil samples within two field visits. Exploration work chronology from 2010 -2013 is unclear, but there are assay certificates under the name of Sierra Pinta Resources PTY LTD, an Australian company represented in Mexico by SF Syndication. The company carried out a thorough sampling campaign with the support of a local geologist, eventually to include sampling by Timmins, Agnico, SF Syndicate and Riverside. Millrock Resources showed interest in negotiating an exploration contract during 2017-2018, but the company eventually withdrew on the property due to demands from the concessionaire who also owns the surface territory occupied by the mining property. On quarter 4 of 2019, Magna Gold succeeded at closing an arrangement for both claims, and exploration works began in December of the same year.