The El Torno Project is centered on a past-producing gold mine located in the Andean Cordillera in the mining friendly province of Jujuy , Argentina near the international border with Bolivia.

The property consists of four mining rights covering a total of 7,863 hectares.  Soltera has a rental/purchase agreement with the titleholder, and the next payment due is US$200,000 on 30^th June 2010.  The area is accessible by road all year round, with electricity available from Santa Catalina Village (8 km away) and abundant water in a nearby river.

MAJOR EXPLORATION TARGETS

El Torno contains a large gold-rich quartz vein system that extends north-south for 14 km and is up to 20 metres wide.  The central parts of the system have been worked since the Incas, resulting in about 1 km of underground galleries that are now flooded.

The vein system was investigated by Puma Minerals in 1997 who carried out over 2,100 m of drilling. They were followed in 1999 by Peñoles (discoverer of the world’s largest silver mine and Mexico's largest and richest gold mines) who undertook trenching, grab sampling, and geological surveying as well as a geophysical IP survey.  The drilling showed that gold is concentrated in a 2 metre-wide zone on the western side of the main vein. Puma estimated that a 1.3 km length of the vein could have the potential for over 500,000 ounces of gold to a depth of 100 metres or 2 million ounces to a depth of 400 metres at an assumed grade of 10 g/t gold (not NI-43-101 compliant).

Soltera has carried out two stream sediment geochemical sampling programmes and a detailed structural survey.   The results show that:

• The main vein system appears mineralized along its full length of 14 kilometres.
• The vein system is folded into an anticlinal form and the tested mineralization in the west wing could extend across into the east wing which is totally untested.
• There are broad and strong stream sediment geochemical gold anomalies over wide areas of the country rocks up to 2 km from the main vein that are centered on suites of small veins and stockworks that could be major open-pit targets.
• The exploration area has been reduced effectively from 80 km² to 10 km² and within this precisely defined area there is potential for several million ounces of both underground and open-pit gold.

The next step is to carry out a two pronged exploration programme on both the geo-chemical anomalies and the main vein system.  Mapping, surface sampling and small, specifically targeted, geophysical programmes will be used to define drill targets.

The above is described in full detail in a recent Project Report available here: EL TORNO PROJECT REPORT 2009

SURFICIAL GOLD – DEVELOPING FOR PRODUCTION

The El Torno area contains a third type of gold deposit known as elluvial which is formed of weathered material derived from gold-bearing bedrock.  Broad patches of this material, usually 2 m to 3 m deep, are distributed throughout the area, commonly centred on the large open-pit targets.  It is easily worked and, in fact, material from one area was extracted by the mineral title owner until three years ago when he ceased operations due to ill health.  The weathered gold-bearing material was dug by back hoe and transported some 3 km to a gravity processing plant located just outside the El Torno title area.

Soltera has now formed a joint venture with the mineral title owner to extract and process the elluvial material.  Full details of the agreement are available in an 8-K filed with the SEC (see SEC 8-K filing here). In essence the joint venture gives Soltera the rights to mine the surface deposits and process the material at the existing plant, with the mineral title owner receiving 10% of gold produced.  The agreement is for four years renewable for another four years provided that half the elluvial material has been worked.  In the event that production ceases for any reason, Soltera is entitled to take possession of the processing plant.

There is no firm data confirming the tonnage and grade potential, but there certainly appear to be substantial tonnages of surface material suitable for processing.  We know that gold was produced from a part of this material using existing equipment for a period of at least two years and that the equipment is still in good condition and serviceable.  Furthermore, we think it highly likely that considerable fine pure gold was lost in the recovery process and it may be possible, by using additional simple processing methods (such as spirals) to recover this gold.

Soltera will now immediately bring the existing processing equipment on-stream and carry out test-work on the source material.  The objective is to achieve full production by the end of 2010.