Note 7 - Exploration and Evaluation Assets

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2018

Statement Line Items [Line Items]

Disclosure of exploration and evaluation assets [text block]

7. EXPLORATION AND EVALUATION ASSETS

(a) In

2017,

the Company entered into an option earn-in agreement with a private group whereby the Company can earn up to a

100%

interest in a prospective land claim package. To earn a

100%

interest in the property package, the Company must make combined remaining cash payments of

$425

over the second, third,

fourth

and

fifth

annual anniversaries of the agreement, and the vendors would retain a

2%

net smelter returns royalty (“NSR”). There are

no

further exploration funding requirements under the agreement as at

December 31, 2018.

(b) In late

2018,

the Company entered into an option agreement with a private group whereby the Company has the right to earn

100%

ownership interest in a company which owns a prospective land claim package. The Company paid

$150

upon signing the agreement. To earn

100%

interest in the property, the Company must make combined remaining cash payments of

$1,850

over the next

10

years, and fund a cumulative of

$30,000

of eligible exploration expenditures by the

tenth

anniversary date of the agreement. Included in these commitments, is a firm commitment of

$1,250

of eligible exploration expenditures in

2019,

with the balance of both the cash payments and exploration commitments optional at the Company’s discretion. The vendors would retain a

2%

NSR.

To

December 31, 2018,

the Company has incurred the following exploration and evaluation expenditures on the properties:

		Year ended December 31, 2018		Year ended  December 31, 2017
Exploration and evaluation assets:
Acquisition costs of mineral and surface rights	$	150	$	75
Geochemical		125		103
Camp and site costs		58		95
Geological consulting		1,086		806
Geophysical		93		–
Land taxes and government fees		445		196
Legal, community and other consultation costs		109		47
Travel		149		111
Total for the year		2,215		1,433
Balance, beginning of year		1,433		–
Balance, end of year	$	3,648	$	1,433

Included in exploration and evaluation assets at

December 31, 2018

are trade and payables of

$13

(

December 31, 2017:

$13

), a non-cash investing activity.

The Company also holds mineral property concessions to the Cinco de Mayo property in Mexico, upon which a full impairment has been recognized in prior years. As a result, expenditures incurred to maintain these concessions and to potentially restore surface access, are

no

longer capitalized as exploration and evaluation assets, but rather are expensed as part of ‘mining taxes and other property costs’ on the statement of loss and comprehensive loss.

On

June 22, 2018,

the Company sold its previously impaired Lagartos concessions in the Zacatecas Silver District to Defiance Silver Corp (“Defiance”) for consideration of

5,000,000

shares of Defiance. The Defiance shares, valued at

$1,202

upon closing, are included in ‘equity securities’ in Investments (see

Note

5

). Transactions costs on the sale of the property were

$51.