On December 5, 2018 the Company successfully lodged a cateo (exclusive temporary mineral exploration permit) of 2,166 hectares in the historically productive El Indio Gold Belt, a mineral rich region of the Andes Mountains spanning the border between Chile and Argentina that contains large gold, silver and copper mines. This property is located roughly 12 kilometers north-northeast of Barrick Gold Corporation’s Veladero gold mine on the Pascua-Lama to Veladero high sulphidation epithermal gold deposits trend. It shares a 250 square kilometer crowded field of mine claims belonging to competitors. Its staking was opportunistic acquisition by Iconic, which through researching title records discovered an old cateo that had expired and the space was again open for claim location. The large block of mine claims surrounding Ortiquita contains significant hydrothermal alteration as depicted by satellite imagery. Favorably altered and gold mineralized volcanic rocks have also been found in past explorations by various companies working the large claim block. 

 

The Company has recently been successful in obtaining a portfolio of technical reports done by previous holders of the property and is in the process of making a geological review of the data base it in the context of drill target recognition. The property has never been tested by drilling. Much of the past exploration drilling in the district around the property has targeted porphyry copper-gold/epithermal gold systems. In years long past, drilling took place on a four-square-kilometer breccia zone within one kilometer northwest of the property where it intersected favorably altered geochemically gold anomalous volcanic formations and altered and pyritic porphyry. Management believes the property possess good hunting grounds for buried gold bearing porphyries.

 

There was neither field work accomplished nor other events of significance to report on the Ortiquita property in 2021. The Company is maintaining the legal status of the mining claims while it seeks a funding Joint Venture partner for further exploration of the property.