Property · tenure · infrastructure
The Charay property: tenure, location and infrastructure
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Serious buyers underwrite tenure and logistics before they underwrite grade. Charay clears both hurdles cleanly.
Titled ground, long runway
The property comprises three contiguous mining concessions totaling 380 hectares, held 100% by Minera Pafex, S.A. de C.V. and recorded in Mexico’s Public Registry of Mining (Registro Público de Minería):
| Concession | Title no. | Area | Titled | Expiry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Luis | 190743 | 30 ha | 1991 | 2041 |
| Charay | 219738 | 74 ha | 2003 | 2053 |
| Charay 2 | 222491 | 276 ha | 2004 | 2054 |
| Total — 100% Minera Pafex | 380 ha | — | — | — |
These are pre-reform, 50-year titles. Mexico’s 2023 mining-law reform shortened tenure and introduced tender processes for new concessions — which makes existing long-dated titles like these strategically scarcer than they were when granted. A concession confers the exclusive right to explore and exploit the minerals within its titled coordinates; once registered it is transferable, mortgageable and enforceable against third parties, functioning much like real property. (Our buyer’s guide covers the system in detail.)
The block was assembled outward over three decades — a 30-hectare core titled in 1991, extended in 2003 and 2004 into 380 contiguous hectares covering the El Padre vein, its known parallel structures and the Charay Breccia target. These are the same three concessions — Charay, Charay 2 and San Luis — identified in former operators’ public market disclosures as hosting the Mina Charay deposit, so the match between title and orebody carries third-party confirmation.
Unencumbered: no underlying royalties, options, back-in rights or liens survive from any prior operator. Every historic option lapsed or concluded cleanly, and title has remained consolidated with Pafex throughout — one corporate holder for all three titles, supporting a clean, notarized transfer or a simple JV over the whole block.
Provenance
Project history: four operators’ worth of work, one consolidated title
Charay’s modern record was built by listed companies reporting to public markets, so most of the story below can be checked against their own announcements. Every stage added data — and every stage ended with the ground, the relationships and the dataset consolidated back with Pafex.
- 1880s
District-era mining
The San Blas district carries documented mining since at least the 1880s. Four historic shafts and workings to roughly 35 m trace the El Padre vein across the property — the “Mina El Padre” of the project’s name.
- 2004
First modern option
Minerales VANE, S.A. de C.V. — Mexican subsidiary of AIM-listed VANE Minerals plc — options the property from Pafex to test a bulk-tonnage disseminated gold thesis.
- 2004–05
27 core holes, a different discovery
1,576 m of diamond drilling in holes of 24–103 m. The disseminated thesis doesn’t hold — but 19 holes cut bonanza-grade vein over 240 m of strike. VANE’s internal estimate of the day (a historical figure) outlined ~37,000 t at 18.75 g/t Au and 120.15 g/t Ag. With gold near US$450/oz, the option lapses — and the dataset stays with the property.
- 2007–08
Independent verification
The core is quartered, re-logged and photographed; 155 pulps and 159 new core samples are re-assayed at ALS (ISO 17025) under full QA/QC, with no discrepancies. An April 2008 technical report (Gordon J. Allen, P.Geol.) rates the property ready for near-term production.
- 2008–10
Journey Resources era
TSX-V-listed Journey Resources Corp. options the three concessions in October 2008. Bulk-sample metallurgy in Hermosillo (2010) confirms the grades and flotation response; a pilot-mining program — dewatering, an underground survey, a planned ~35,000-tonne extraction — begins that March, and an independent Qualified Person recompiles the drill database to the 20.3 g/t Au and 123.7 g/t Ag over 1.29 m cited across this site. The option is ultimately not exercised; full title consolidates back with Pafex.
- 2014
Production JV signed
In September, Pafex signs a 60:40 profit-share joint venture with Minerales VANE — by then a subsidiary of Rose Petroleum plc — as operator. The operator’s re-evaluation of the drill data (a historical estimate) outlines 29,000 oz gold and 173,000 oz silver in 90,000 t. Development starts immediately; mining commences on 18 December — reported to the market as on schedule and on budget.
- 2015
The producing year
15,430 t milled (March–August); 393 dry tonnes of concentrate shipped in 14 lots (February–December) containing 3,668 oz Au and 24,550 oz Ag — in a sub-US$1,200/oz gold market, drawing on the lowest-grade, near-surface part of the system. Mining ceases in October as the operator’s UK parent completes its strategic pivot out of mining and into oil & gas.
- 2017
Former operator exits Mexico
The former partner sells its Mexican mill and mining subsidiary and leaves the country — confirmation in the public record that the JV’s conclusion was a corporate-strategy decision, not a verdict on the orebody.
- Today
Consolidated and offered
Titles in good standing to 2041–2054, surface relationships intact, the vein untested below ~50 m — and the complete record, from 2005 assay certificates to 2015 mill sheets, organized for a buyer’s diligence.
Company and transaction details above are drawn from the former operators’ public market disclosures. The 2005 and 2014 figures are historical estimates, not current mineral resources — see the cautionary note in the footer.
Location
45 minutes from a city of 235,000
Charay sits in the San Blas Mining District, northern Sinaloa, centered near 26°06′ N, 108°54′ W (UTM 2,888,500 N / 710,400 E, Zone 12) — 36 km northeast of Los Mochis via Federal Highway 15, the El Fuerte highway and an all-weather gravel road. Los Mochis provides offices, housing, services, suppliers and labor; Mazatlán’s international airport lies 385 km south, with regional service closer.
A large part of the property lies on private parcels, the remainder within a local ejido. Surface access arrangements have been maintained by the Palafox family for more than three decades, spanning multiple exploration campaigns and the 2015 operating campaign — continuity that materially de-risks the restart path.
The project has previously held a blasting permit and submitted an environmental impact study in support of a planned 35,000-tonne pilot-mining program, and the 2015 campaign operated under the applicable authorizations of the day. The permitting pathway in this jurisdiction is well understood; current permitting status and the restart sequence are available to qualified parties.
| Terrain | Flat (50–80 m elevation), semi-arid, workable year-round; 1–2 m overburden |
|---|---|
| Power | Charay powerline crosses the claim block, under 750 m from the El Padre exposures |
| Rail | FerroMex mainline landing (Nogales–Guadalajara, connects to Union Pacific) 6 km away |
| Port | Deep-water Topolobampo, 24 km southwest of Los Mochis — concentrate to tidewater in about an hour |
| Water | Water table within 8 m of surface; irrigation canals within 8–10 km |
| People | Skilled regional mining workforce around Los Mochis and El Fuerte; the 2015 campaign ran on toll infrastructure in-region |
See the drilling that defines the prize.
Nineteen intercepts averaging 20.3 g/t gold — open in every direction.