The Lago Fontana gold exploration project remained on standby status for all of 2021. The Lago Fontana property consists of 16 mine rights covering 17,498 hectares, of which 14 of those are perfected mining claims, or Mina (mining concessions), containing 83 pertinencias (claims) that cover 498 hectares. These Mina, which are real estate, were established in 1940 - 1942. Additionally, there is one Manifestation of Discovery (MD) of 7,000 hectares plus a temporary exclusive mineral exploration permit (cateo) totaling 10,000 hectares. A MD is a transition mining right of conversion of a cateo into a Mina.  A determination of the project’s legal status is pending resolution of what ecological category the region is to be declared by the Chubut provincial legislature. It is located in the Andean Mountain front near the Argentine - Chile boarder next to Fontana Lake, with good access by road and 400 kilometres from the large oil services city of Comodoro Rivadavia.

 

In 2003, the provincial legislature of the Province of Chubut enacted Law 5001 which prohibits open pit mining and the use of cyanide in mining in the province. In October of 2020, a legislative attempt brought forth by the governor of the province to exclude two of Chubut’s fifteen departments (i.e. counties) from that mining ban failed. The Company’s Lago Fontana is not in either of those departments. Additionally, in 2007, the Province of Chubut enacted legislation to suspend mining activities along its front of the Andes Mountains while it evaluates the region for sectors to include in various conservation categories. Ever since, the Lago Fontana project has been locked in the vice of these two laws. The project remains suspended in a standby basis until Law 5001 is favorably changed and a favorable outcome in the completion of the ecological studies may be made. The Company’s mine rights are frozen and taxation of the Mina has also been postponed. The mine rights fees (called canons) are paid up through 2010. At such time that mining may ever again be allowed in the region, Iconic would then have to pay the accumulated sum of all the annual canons between 2011 and the year such event may happen in order to keep the Mina. That amount would be approximately US$6,000 if such event were to occur in 2021. At this time, Iconic does not intend to relinquish its mining claims and may consider seeking just and fair compensation through the courts should the Province of Chubut seize Iconic’s Mina by law of eminent domain or permanently block access to them.

 

An old mine called Ferrocarrilera exists on the Mina and was operated on a small scale between 1939 and 1947. The Company does not have its production records but notes the underground mine workings amount to only 493 meters. Polymetallic sulphide ore minerals occur in several quartz veins and shear zones across the property. There are historic mineral resources on two veins – Veta Ferrocarrilera having 840,000 tonnes with 1g/t Au, 10 g/t Ag, 0.03% Cu, 0.95% Pb and 0.78% Zn, and Veta Cerro Cuchi having 337,500 tonnes with 0.23 g/t Au, 10.75 g/t Ag, 0.10% Cu, 0.65% Pb and 0.80% Zn. These are not NI 43-101 compliant resources and have not been checked by a qualified person. Iconic’s geologic consultants think this potential can probably be increased upwards to 2 Mt with good zinc and lead grades carrying strong credits in gold and silver.

 

These veins are epithermal in character and cut through Tertiary age dacitic volcanics. The exploration potential for discovery of a bulk-tonnage epithermal gold deposit is good.

 

The Company optioned the Lago Fontana property to Apex Silver Mines Ltd. in 2006. Apex began a comprehensive exploration program, finding robust stream sediment gold anomalies up to 43.3 g/t Au on extensions of the known mineralization, and further confirming the potential mineral resource by extensive rock chip channel sampling yielding up to 0.51 g/t Au, 7.5% Pb and 5.3% Zn across 6.3 meters of width of a quartz vein. The Apex exploration program and its option agreement were terminated on news Chubut province was indefinitely closing the area to mining related activities. 

 

Iconic has no work plans at this time for its Lago Fontana property and does not consider the historical resource to be a current mineral resource. The geochemical anomalies generated by Apex present tantalizing gold deposit discovery possibilities, but the Company deems it inappropriate to engage in any follow-up exploration activities for the foreseeable future. 

 

The mining claims are located within a geographical zone of yet to be resolved ecological category where mining activities have been suspended by legislation. It will remain so until the Chubut provincial legislature establishes what conservation category it is to be included within. When that may happen the Company will then assess its options for either continuing with the project or demanding compensation from the Chubut government. The mine rights fees (called canons) are paid up through 2010. At such time that mining may ever again be allowed in the region, Iconic would then have to pay the accumulated sum of all the annual canons between 2011 and the year such event may happen in order to keep the Mina. To maintain ownership of these claims the company will be paying US$1,500 for the annual canons owing from 2011 to 2022. They are currently not in good standing.