AZTEC MINERALS CORP
Arizona, USA
Tombstone Property: Geological Background
Aztec Minerals Corp. (AZT· TSX-V) · Tombstone Property, Arizona
Aztec Minerals holds an 85.0% interest in the Tombstone Property Joint Venture, which includes most of the original patented mining claims(46) in the historic Tombstone mining district 100km southeast of Tucson, Arizona…
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Analysis by Bill Pearson, PhD, P.Geo
Updated Jul 30, 2026
Aztec Minerals holds an 85.0% interest in the Tombstone Property Joint Venture, which includes most of the original patented mining claims(46) in the historic Tombstone mining district 100km southeast of Tucson, Arizona, as well as some recently acquired properties (73claims) covering a total of 833 ha (2058 ha). Historic production is reported as 32 million ounces of silver and 250,000 ounces of gold from 1878-1939, in high grade, oxidized, silver-gold-lead-zinc-copper vein, breccia and CRD deposits, and small open pit heap leach production in late 1980’s. The Tombstone area has excellent infrastructure, local town, road access, full services, water and power.
Arizona Mining have considerable experience in the area having previously acquired the small, historic Hermosa Silver district, discovered the massive Taylor CRD deposit (110+ million tonnes @ 10% ZnEq) below and beyond the shallow lead-zinc-silver veins, and attracted a $1.8 billion take-over by South 32 in 2018. The company considers Tombstone to be the nearest historic silver district with similar potential to Hermosa and Taylor.
Drilling by Aztec in 2020-25 has demonstrated that the Contention Pit target has significant, shallow, oxidized Au-Ag bulk tonnage mineralization which is open in all directions. Multiple other prospective targets have been identified in Cretaceous and Paleozoic rocks related to major NW and NNE trending structures hosting porphyritic intrusions crosscutting a possible caldera ring structure.
Table 1 gives highlights from drilling by Aztec from 2021to 2025on the Contention Zone.
The main target of the current drilling is to continue testing the shallow, bulk tonnage, potentially heap leachable, mesothermal gold-silver oxide mineralization adjacent and below the previously mined Contention pit by step-out drilling. Future drilling is expected to focus on follow-up on the current program’s results. It is anticipated that possible targeting could include strike and dip extensions of the shallow oxide mineralization and move along those trends deeper into the sulfide zone as historically there was significant production to 300 m depth.
Figure 1
Source: Aztec Minerals Corp.
NEWS RELEASES
Click any release to read Bill's geological analysis:
Actual holdings will vary for each client or fund and there is no guarantee that a particular account will hold any or all of the securities discussed. All investing involves risk including risk of loss. Crescat target resource estimates (TSE) are based on internal modeling and geologic estimates, and include various assumptions based on analysis of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, historic drill assays, and metallurgical recovery data received to date. TSE are discounted based on drilling progress to date, an assessment of the management and technical team's strengths and weaknesses affecting their ability to advance the project, and environmental, local community, and government permitting risk factors. Estimates are displayed on a gold equivalent basis based on current price-to-gold ratios for silver, copper, and other metals if the primary metal is other than gold. Further drilling, assaying, resource modeling, and engineering studies will be required to determine whether Crescat's TSE can be reasonably expected to be achieved. Crescat's target resource estimates are updated monthly across the entire portfolio. Sources: Crescat Capital LLC, Bloomberg, Issuer. Expected profitability percentile is based on Crescat's geologic estimates of projected grades, recoveries, capex, and operational costs on the primary project compared to the universe of operating mines. This value does not project overall anticipated company profitability.