The center of the 2,505-hectare property is located at 24.61 degrees S latitude and 67.77 degrees W longitude. Access to the Desierto property from the city of Salta is mostly by paved roads for approximately 176 km followed by all-weather gravel roads for 230 km via National Highway 51 and Provincial Highway 27. Numerous 4 x 4 trails cross the property. Travel time is 7 to 8 hours from the city of Salta. The Desierto I and Desierto II concessions are immediately adjacent to and south of the Sarita Este concession.

There is no permanent camp at the Desierto property. Accommodation and services for exploration workers are located at the village of Tolar Grande, about 30 km away. Tolar Grande has a population of approximately 175. Travel to the Desierto property includes crossing a portion of the Salar de Arizaro. The Salta - Antofagasta railway is located 9 km to the north and the Argentine to Chile high tension power line is 110 km to the east of the property. The area is sparsely populated and there is sufficient land for mining operations. Surface water is scarce but subsurface water can be obtained from the surrounding aquifers.

By mutual agreement with two other parties who were also successful in a 2011 province-run lottery process to acquire the concessions, ownership of the Desierto I and Desierto II concessions is shared with a subsidiary of Cascadero, which is publicly listed on the TSXV, and a private Argentinian company, Pacha Minerals, each of the three parties with a one-third interest. The concessions total 2505 hectares and are located immediately south of the Sarita Este concession and southwest of the Taca Taca copper-gold deposit owned by First Quantum Minerals.

In July 2019 Golden Minerals entered into an option agreement with Pacha Minerals to acquire its one-third interest in the Desierto Concessions. The agreement calls for payments of $1.5 million over 6 years for 28.33% of the 33.33% interest controlled by Pacha Minerals. Golden Minerals holds a further option to purchase the remaining 5% for an additional payment of $1 million with no defined time limit. Pacha will retain a 0.5% NSR royalty interest upon the sale of the entirety of its one-third interest.

The properties are located in the southern portion of the Sierra de Taca Taca, a mountain range formed of uplifted Ordovician granite along a fault located at the western margin of the Salar de Arizaro. To the west and paralleling the salar margin, lies a 2 km wide graben that likely postdates the uplift faulting. The properties of La Sarita Este and Desierto I and II lie between these two major structures. Although the granite is cut by numerous dykes from the Late Permian through to Triassic, it is thought that the Oligocene rhyodacitic intrusions are responsible for the majority of the copper porphyry mineralization in the area. It is unclear what is responsible for volcanic hosted gold veining on the La Sarita Este and Desierto I properties, but there is strong evidence of a larger system at depth.

The prominent feature on the eastern portion of the concessions is the Ordovician Taca Taca granitic batholith which has been intruded by Permo - Triassic syenite to trachyte dykes and local monzonite plugs. The north-central portion of the area is dominated by a Late Permian volcanic unit. The northwest central portion of the area is covered by a recent dacitic dome and related intermediate to felsic volcanic rocks. The dome and related volcanics occupy what appears to be a large 2 km wide graben structure. West of the graben lie granite and quartz monzonite of the Sierra de Taca Taca Range, hosting the Taca Taca Alto porphyry. Intermediate to felsic Tertiary volcanic tuffs, flows, and volcaniclastic sediments cover most of the southern portion of the concession area.

Hydrothermal alteration related to prospective mineralization is parallel to, and zoned away from, the margins of the salar. The southern region is characterized by potassic and alunite-clay alteration in the vicinity of syenite/trachyte dykes. The central region is characterized by a weak sericite-clay-limonite alteration reminiscent of hanging wall alteration around a porphyry system. The westernmost alteration, before entering the large graben structure, is predominantly moderate to strong hematite. The surface alteration pattern suggests a deeper mineralizing system could be found at depth, centered in the region of the monzonite plugs. The volcanic unit, separating Taca Taca Bajo from the La Sarita Este and Desierto I, has moderate hornfelsing.

Structurally the region is cut by an abundance of strong NW-SE and NNW-SSE linear features which are likely fault-related although there is little evidence of fault displacement. Regardless of their origin, the linear structures appear to control alteration and mineralization patterns. A 3 km x 1 km trend of silica ‘ribs’ representing veins extends south from the dacite dome into Desierto II. Sampling of the silica ribs has defined gold and silver grades of potential economic significance.

A permit has been approved for exploration drilling on the concessions, to test for the extension of gold mineralization encountered on the Sarita Este concession immediately north of Desierto I and to test several other prospective geochemical and geophysical anomalies on the Desierto property.