IMA Exploration Inc.

COMPANY DATAINTRODUCTION | PROPERTIES IN HAND | MANAGEMENT
NEWS UPDATE | CHINESE
 

Address:  Suite 709 - 837 W. Hastings Street
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada V6C 3N6
Tel No.:  (604) 687-1828
Fax No.: (604) 687-1858
Toll Free No.: 1-800-901-0058
Web Site:  www.imaexploration.com  
Corporate Email: info@imaexploration.com 
Contact Person: Sean Hurd
Position:  Investor Relations

COMPANY DATA

Traded Market:  TSX-Venture 
Traded Symbol: IMR 
Outstanding Shares:  25,000,000 
Public Float: 9,000,000 
52 Week High: $ 0.94 
52 Week Low:  $ 0.35 
Present Price: Click Here 

INTRODUCTION

IMA Exploration Inc. is a public junior exploration company engaged in mining exploration and development in South America.

IMA Exploration Inc. has been actively exploring in Argentina since 1993 and Peru since 1995, assembling an impressive property portfolio totalling over 1,500 square kilometres. The Company is currently in an option agreement in Argentina with Barrick Gold Corp.

In Argentina, the Company established most of its land position immediately after the mining sector was opened to foreign investment and well ahead of most of the multi-national companies which now dominate activity in the area.

IMA has acquired several key properties along the Argentina border under the guidance of Dr. Vicente Mendez, who had been Chief Geologist for 14 years with the government agency that managed exploration in the frontier regions of Argentina (until 1993). The result is an impressive group of strategically located projects, with several properties either adjacent to or in close proximity to Barrick's massive Pascua and Veladero gold-silver deposits.

In Peru, IMA has the option to acquire 100% of the Rio Tabaconas property where several high grade gold anomalies have been identified. The property covers 68 square kilometres and is accessible year round by existing roads.

The most advanced of the targets discovered to date on Rio Tabaconas are "Cerro Tablon" and "Cerro Las Minas Target". The Tablon gold target is dominated by a high grade soil and rock chip anomaly with values up to 147 grams per tonne gold. This high priority target currently measures 600 metres by up to 200 metres (the boundaries have not yet been defined). 1.2 km to the southeast of Tablon is the Las Minas target, which is characterized by widespread zones of silicification and highly anomalous soil and rock chip samples (up to 38 g/t gold). The first phase of drilling will focus on the Tablon target and confirmed the presence of high to bonanza gold grades at dept. Upcoming Phase II drilling will continue to expand the Tablon zone and will also test Cerro Las Minas Breccia target.

PROPERTIES IN HAND

(1) Rio Tabaconas Property, Peru

IMA has spent the past several years reviewing over 1 million hectares of prospective property in Peru. The result of this
IMA_1.jpg (39506 bytes) extensive search is one of the most exciting early stage prospects in that country today: "Rio Tabaconas".

A 1,600 meter first phase diamond drill campaign was completed in October, 2001. The completed drilling from Phase I is extremely encouraging, as it has demonstrated the Tablon target to be a significant structurally controlled mineralized system with high to bonanza gold grades and a strike length in excess of two kilometres, with indications of gold along its entire length.

(2) Valle del Cura, Argentina

IMA has been funded by Barrick Gold for a second season of work on its Valle del Cura properties, located in
IMA_2.jpg (54313 bytes) Northwestern Argentina adjoining the Pascua and Veladero gold discoveries. Since the mid-nineties, over 37 million ounces of gold resources have been identified in this emerging gold camp which straddles the international border between Chile and Argentina.

Initial exploration work carried out during the 1999-2000 season by IMA identified four exploration targets on the Potrerillos and Rio de las Taguas properties. Initial drilling was completed on one of these, Fabiana, at the end of the season. The results confirmed the existence of a high sulphidation alteration system with widespread anomalous indicator element geochemistry and scattered intercepts of narrow vein gold mineralization, typical of the fringes of a mineralized system such as Pascua. Further work is planned to better characterize this mineralization and that at the three other target areas (Ridge on Rio de las Taguas, and Narelle and Panorama on Potrerillos).

(3) Mogote, Argentina

In July 2000 IMA was successful in negotiating an option covering the Mogote property in San Juan province, Argentina.
IMA_3.jpg (41456 bytes) Mogote covers 8,009 ha and is located approximately 30 km east of Metallica's El Morro discovery and 70 km north of Barrick Gold's Pascua-Veladero discoveries.

The Mogote property is in the Andes on the Argentina side of the international border between the prolific El Indio and Maricunga gold belts which host several major gold deposits. The project area covers a large hydrothermal alteration system with numerous geologic similarities to major porphyry gold-copper deposits in the Andean Cordillera.

(4) Gualcamayo Region, Argentina

The Gualcamayo region is located along the northern border of San Juan province, Argentina. The district has a rich history
IMA_4.jpg (39833 bytes) of mining and the relatively low elevations and easy access make year-round exploration feasible. Re-interpretation of the regional structural setting and style of mineralization in comparison with northeastern Nevada suggest that a new district of Carlin-style sediment and skarn-hosted deposits may be in the making. In the Carlin trend of Nevada, numerous deposits occur within the district, with some of the largest containing over 10 million ounces of gold.

Through a previous joint-venture agreement with Viceroy Resource Corporation, IMA participated in a major new gold discovery and now holds a 2% NSR on the Company's former interest of properties sold to Viceroy. This includes Gualcamayo with a 1.35 million ounce gold resource contained at Quebrada del Diablo. Gualcamayo is an active exploration program with further drilling proposed.

(5) Chubut, Argentina

Encouraged by recent discoveries in the southern Argentina, IMA Exploration began a regional reconnaissance exploration
IMA_5.jpg (40121 bytes) program in the Chubut and southern Rio Negro province of Patagonia. The results of this ongoing program lead to the acquisition of two properties in Chubut, Las Bayas and Laguna de los Toros. IMA holds 100% ownership, with no underlying royalties, of these properties via its wholly owned Argentinean subsidiary Inversiones Mineras Argentinas, S.A.

The exploration potential of the Patagonia region has been highlighted by a number of major new discoveries, including Brancote Holdings PLC's Esquel Gold Project (3.8 million ounces gold and 6.9 million ounces silver) in northwestern Chubut and Anglo Gold's Cerro Vanguardia Deposit (2.8 million ounces gold and 33 million ounces silver) in Santa Cruz.

MANAGEMENT

IMA Exploration Inc. has the benefit of an established management team that possesses a North American business discipline and a deep understanding of South American culture. The management team comprises of Canadian entrepreneurial and technical skill with a large content of Spanish/English executives which provides the essential structure to deal with the diversity of doing business in South America. The management team include:

Mr. Joseph Grosso, President, CEO and Director
Dr. Gerald Carlson, P.Eng., Chairman and Director
Mr. William Lee, B.Comm, CA., Chief Financial Officer and Director
Mr. Robert Brown, M.Sc., P.Eng., Director and Consulting Geologist
Mr. Sean Hurd, B.A. (Economics), Director
Mr. Nikolaos Cacos, M.I.M., VP Investor Relations and Corporate Secretary
Mr. Juan Carlos Berretta, M.Sc., VP South American Corporate Development and Finance
Dr. Vicente Mendez, Consulting Geologist

NEWS UPDATE

On March 20, 2003, IAMGOLD Corporation announced the 2002 year-end results. The highlights are as follows:

- IAMGOLD completed a business combination with Repadre Capital Corporation effective January 7, 2003.
- Cash of US$20 million was distributed from the Sadiola mine to shareholders in 2002. IAMGOLD's share was US$7.6 million.
- IAMGOLD's attributable gold production for 2002 amounted to 289,794 ounces at a total cash cost of US$178/oz.
- The Sadiola mine produced 479,911 ounces of gold (IAMGOLD's share 182,366 ounces) at a total cash cost of US$172/oz in 2002.
- The Yatela mine produced 268,569 ounces of gold (IAMGOLD's share 107,428 ounces) at a total cash cost of US$187/oz in 2002.
- IAMGOLD"s consolidated cash and gold bullion position at December 31, 2002 stood at US$46 million, including US$36 million in corporate discretionary funds.
- At December 31, 2002, the Company held 97,381 ounces of gold which were recorded at their cost basis of $314 per ounce for a total value of $30.6 million ($33.4 million at year-end spot price for gold of $343 per ounce).
- IAMGOLD recorded a liability and a corresponding expense of US$2.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2002 as a result of the December 23 judgement in respect of the Kinbauri lawsuit.

On October 29, 2002, IMA Exploration Inc. announced the additional Phase I results and provide an update of exploration activities on its 100% owned Las Bayas property in the Esquel region of Patagonia, southern Argentina. The Company's Exploration Manager, Keith Patterson, M.Sc., is now enroute to join IMA's exploration team on the Las Bayas project to evaluate drill targets and arrange the logistics for an upcoming drill program on this high priority project.

The results from the completed Las Bayas exploration program confirm that the setting is very similar to the geological model or the upper portions of a high-grade, low-sulphidation epithermal gold system, such as the Esquel discovery in Patagonia (3.8 million ounces of gold, 6.9 million ounces of silver).

On October 25, 2002, IMA Exploration Inc. announced that Phase I exploration has been completed on its Las Bayas gold project. The work program on Las Bayas focused on a 4.5 x 1.5 kilometer area of intense quartz veining within a gold mineralized corridor that extends over 10 kilometers in length. The mineralized area identified fits the well defined Esquel geological model for the upper levels of a high-grade low-sulphidation epithermal gold vein system. The Esquel gold deposit in Patagonia is 3.8 million ounces of gold and 6.9 million ounces of silver, and was purchased in July 2002 for US$230M by Meridian Gold.

On September 23, 2002, IMA Exploration Inc. announced the completion of a non-brokered private placement financing of 1,554,915 million units at a price of $0.47 per unit, subject to regulatory approval. The participants in this private placement include: Mr. Joseph Grosso, President & C.E.O. of IMA Exploration Inc., the Prudent Bear Fund of Dallas Texas, a Swiss Fund, British, and Canadian Investors.

IMA is in a strong financial position to meet its exploration objectives with in excess of $2,000,000 in working capital. The Company's technical team is now preparing several exploration programs to advance some of its key gold exploration projects within its highly prospective, large property portfolio that is strategically situated either contiguous to or close to many existing world-class discoveries in South America.

On September 03, 2002, IMA Exploration Inc. announced an important new milestone with the accumulation of several gold properties in the Patagonia region of southern Argentina. With these new acquisitions, the Company has secured the following gold projects: Costa, Lago Pico, Corcovado, Loma Alta, and Nueva Ruta, bringing IMA's land position in this high profile gold district to almost 750 square kilometers (74,906 ha) on which the Company holds a 100% interest with no underlying royalties.

The newly acquired properties are within the same geological trend, and in a similar geological environment as Meridian Gold Inc.'s Esquel deposit (formerly owned by Brancote Holdings PLC and containing a resource of 3.8 million ounces gold, and 6.9 million ounces of silver).

On August 13, 2002, IMA Exploration Inc. announced that a 6 to 8 week exploration program has commenced on its 100% owned Las Bayas, Los Toros and Victoria properties in Chubut Province, within the Patagonia region of Argentina. The work program consists of geological mapping, detailed soil, rock, and silt sampling. Concurrently, IMA will continue the regional review that has been ongoing for over two years to further its diversification into Argentine gold projects that are accessible year round.

On July 17, 2002, IMA Exploration Inc. announced that the Company is preparing a detailed exploration program to identify drill targets on its projects in Chubut Province, Argentina. In addition, IMA is planning exploration programs on several of its other gold projects within its 1,360 square km (136,000 ha) property portfolio in Argentina.

On June 28, 2002, IMA Exploration Inc. announced that in light of upcoming provincial and municipal elections in Peru to be held on November 17, 2002 and the local political campaigning in rural communities, the Company's management, with the assistance of expert advisors, has decided to take a more measured approach to exploring the Rio Tabaconas project, at this time. Recent issues at the provincial and local community levels throughout Peru have generated scepticism and opposition towards various types of regional development, including power plants and mining activity.

IMA's management is confident that this step is a temporary measure and that it will be resolved in a timely manner.

The Company, with the assistance of special Peruvian social-economic consultants, has recently prepared for discussion a Company-Community statement of proposed relations to create the confidence expected by the local community. This statement seeks to address greater participation at the regional and community level. The drafted policy includes a strong Company involvement toward the area's development by creating job programs which will extend well beyond a mining activity future.

On June 19, 2002, IMA Exploration Inc. announced that the acquisition of the Victoria claims totalling 12,709 hectares, which are contiguous to the Company's Las Bayas property in Chubut Province, southern Argentina. Las Bayas is along the same geological trend as Brancote Holdings PLC's Esquel deposit (resource of 3.8 million ounces gold), and in a similar geological environment. This new property addition is the result of a substantial review of southern Argentina by IMA's geologists over the past two years. The Company now has over 20,000 hectares in Chubut Province, and is currently reviewing several other new projects.

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