Telimbela Mineral Property: Overview

• copper porphyry “grassroots” project
• 4,200ha (10,300 acres) located in south-central Ecuador
• historical grades encountered 0.25%-0.46%Cu
• option to purchase 100% of property

The Telimbela Property is comprised of the San Pablo 1 Concession, covering an area of 4,200 hectares, and is located west of the Andes in the Bolivar Mining District, Chimbo County, Ecuador. We have an option to acquire a 100% interest in the property.

The property lies at an elevation of 3,937 feet, 2 km from the settlement of Telimbela, and within a few kilometers of the national power grid. The local population supports exploration and social interaction to date has proven favorable. The Telimbela porphyry copper prospect was discovered in 1977 by INEMIN (Instituto Ecuatoriano de Mineria) which combined the use of stream sediment geochemistry, geophysics and 4 diamond drill holes (560 meters). The first three holes encountered strongly anomalous (500 parts per million (“ppm”) to 1000 ppm copper) copper mineralization occurring as chalcopyrite-pyrite mineralization within stockwork quartz veining cutting andesites and quartz diorites.

The fourth hole (144 meters in depth) penetrated a hydrothermal breccia which averaged 0.4% copper as chalcopyrite and bornite. In 1990, the Japanese International Cooperative Agency (JICA) expanded the area of anomalous surface mineralization and drilled two holes, located 2 km to the northeast of the earlier drilling. These two holes, 300 and 205 meters deep, respectively, encountered significant chalcopyrite, pyrite, magnetite mineralization associated with a large hydrothermal breccia–porphyry copper event. The first hole encountered over 100 meters averaging + 0.46% copper in multiphase hydrothermal breccias. The second hole penetrated the wall rock to the breccia body and encountered 81 meters averaging 0.25% copper as stockworks of chalcopyrite-pyrite mineralization in quartz diorite and micro quartz diorites.

Ascendant has acquired access to all existing information including core, core logs, assays and all geochemistry and geophysical analyses done on the project. Ascendant personnel have inspected the core and believe the Telimbela porphyry copper, breccia system may have close affinities to an Olympic Dam model because of the close genetic association copper ineralization has with the intense magnetite mineralization. Hydrothermal copper mineralization is ultiphased and is concomitant with disruptive, fluid brecciation, all of which is associated with the more acidic intrusives. Outcrop sampling by JICA consistently yielded values of 0.2 to 0.4 grams per ton gold. However, none of the core has been analyzed for gold or for other elements suggestive of Olympic Dam affinities. These results are historical only and have not been verified by a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Operating under an existing Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment for the property, a program of mapping, soils sampling and rock chip sampling was undertaken on the Telimbela property in the first quarter of 2007.  In March 2007, the Company announced that the program had outlined a previously unrecognized zone of significant copper mineralization covering an area of about 28 hectares (70 acres).  Fourteen chiseled rock chip channel samples over a length of approximately 40 meters encountered values as high as 1.93% copper with an arithmetic mean of 0.80% copper.  Rock chip channel samples were typically two meters in length by one meter in height and comprised of 3.0 to 4.8 kilograms in weight of material collected uniformly over the length of the sample area.  Additional ridge line soil sampling adjacent to the discovery zone continued to give encouraging assay results, yielding copper grades as high as 1.07% copper.  The discovery zone is considered to be open in all directions.
An extension of that rock chip channel sampling program, undertaken subsequent to March 2007, outlined a continuous zone of 98 meters grading 0.51% copper with a high value of 1.93% copper over two meters in width.  In addition, 400 meters to the south, another continuous channel rock sampling program has yielded a second zone 58 meters wide grading 0.55% copper.  These two zones are contained within a newly-delineated soils and rock geochemical anomaly which has grown to 800 by 600 meters in size and remains open to the south.  Assay results from the final soils geochemical grid are pending. 

Structural mapping of the Northeast Zone indicates that the newly-discovered geochemical anomalies may be an extension of the previously identified Central Zone, explored by the Metal Mining Agency, Japan in the early 1970’s.  In addition to the exploration results reported above for the new Northeast Zone, the Company has also recently conducted some additional outcrop and channel sampling in the Central Zone, which has yielded values of up to 0.35% copper.  Drilling is expected to begin in June 2007.

The Telimbela property lies in the same belt of rocks which hosts such copper anomalies as the Company’s Chaucha and Junin projects.  The rocks are diorites and tonalities with roof pendants of earlier andesites and are copper prospects with iron-oxide, copper-gold affinities.  Mineralization is dominantly extremely fine-grained chalcopyrite.  The newly-identified discovery zone is elongated in a north-south direction consistent with the structural controls in the area.

Pursuant to existing mining laws and regulations in Ecuador, and in conjunction with Whistler Consultores Ldta. of Quito, a final consultation with the community of Telimbela was recently conducted in order to gain approval of a more comprehensive environmental impact study (“EIA”) which would allow more comprehensive exploration, including proposed drilling on the concession.  The EIA, along with comments incorporated from the public consultation meeting, was submitted to the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Ecuador in late May 2007.

Telimbela is an exploration-stage project and does not have any proven or probable reserves.