Tag Archives: Silver

Hecla testing out XRF ore sorting at San Sebastian silver-gold mine in Mexico

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Hecla Mining is carrying out ore sorting proof of concept work at its San Sebastian silver-gold mine in Durango, Mexico, CEO Phil Baker told attendees at the Mines and Technology conference this week.

Baker said an algorithm based on X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) technology was determining whether the rock coming through from the mine was ore or waste.

San Sebastian, which produced 3.3 Moz of silver and 25,177 oz of gold last year, recently moved over to underground operations after open-pit mining concluded at the end of 2017. In 2018, it is expected to produce 2-2.2 Moz of silver at a cash cost, after by-product credits, of $9.50/oz, while gold production is expected to come in at 15,000-16,000 oz.

The company’s concession holdings in Durango are in the middle of the prolific Mexican Silver Belt and cover approximately 42,000 ha. Mineralisation in the district is structurally controlled and hosted in sedimentary rocks, with many companies in the region mining high-grade veins.

Hecla is weighing up whether to start mining sulphide ore at the deposit, which could potentially extend the mine’s life by some five years.

While Baker said test work on XRF ore sorting at San Sebastian was ongoing, he did see potential for the technology being applied across the mining sector.

“The real issue with ore sorting is: what is your recovery going to be? How much are you going to lose? And, we’re still working through that (at San Sebastian). But I have high hopes for this being a complete gamechanger for the industry,” he said at the event in London.

“The cost of sorting is quite low. If you’re able to get a high enough recovery, then you can afford to do more productive methods of mining for small tonnage operations. It could completely change how you go about mining.”

Last month, Agnico Eagle Mines said it was in the process of installing an ore sorting pilot plant at its Pinos Altos gold-silver operation, also in Mexico.

Continental Gold keeps Buriticá project on track for debut pour in H1 2020

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The latest update from Continental Gold on its Buriticá project in north-western Antioquia, Colombia, indicates the company is on track to pour gold in the first half of 2020.

The company said overall construction was 44% complete, with detailed engineering over 93% advanced.

At the same time, underground development was tracking ahead of plan at 44% completion, with 6,274 m finished to date. Process plant earthworks were 76% finished and mechanical installation was scheduled to begin in early 2019, the company said, while powerline installation was advancing rapidly and set for completion early in the September quarter.

This all bodes well for commercial production ramp-up of Buriticá taking place six months after the first gold pour.

Since completing the feasibility study for the Buriticá project in 2016, the company has been optimising the mine design and rescheduling development. This work has resulted in a reduction in total pre-production lateral development (horizontal and inclined jumbo development) from 19 km in the feasibility study to 14.3 km in the current mine plan, a reduction of approximately 25%.

In terms of underground development, monthly advance rates have consistently exceeded planned development this year. Crews continue advancing daily at the Yaraguá and Veta Sur ramps and the Higabra tunnel and upper and lower drifts connecting the Yaraguá and Veta Sur vein areas are advancing well. Additionally, definition drilling continues to provide information required for stope design and mine production scheduling.

Drill chambers continue to be extracted proximal to planned stoping areas as development advances; monthly definition drilling has been and will continue to increase through the balance of the year and into 2019 as development accesses additional drilling areas, the company said.

The feasibility study for the Buriticá project highlighted the potential to host an economically robust, high-grade underground gold mine, which includes a mineral reserve for the combined Yaraguá and Veta Sur vein systems totalling 3.7 Moz of gold and 10.7 Moz of silver at grades of 8.4 g/t Au and 24.3 g/t Ag. When in production, it would be Colombia’s largest gold mine, producing 253,000 oz/y of the yellow metal.

NGEx weighs up autonomous haul trucks for Josemaría copper-gold-silver project

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One of the few “construction-ready” copper-gold-silver projects yet to be funded has contemplated the use of autonomous haul trucks in its latest economic study.

The prefeasibility study for the Josemaría project in San Juan province, Argentina, showed ore would be mined using conventional open-pit methods and assumed the latest in autonomous haul truck technologies.

The PFS outlines the development of a 150,000 t/d milling operation able to produce 125,000 t/y of copper, 230,000 oz/y of gold and 790,000 oz/y of silver at a C1 cost of $1.26/Ib ($2,778/t) of copper-equivalent over a 20-year mine life.

The initial capital cost came in at $2.75 billion, with the post-tax net present value (8% discount) slightly below at $2 billion. All of these calculations used an average $3/Ib copper price.

The PFS was prepared and managed by SRK Consulting with input from Ausenco Engineering Canada, Knight Piésold, BGC Engineering, Merlin Geosciences and Gino Zandonai.

NGEx said the plan for Josemaria saw ore trucked from the open pit to a primary crusher, which crushed the material before it was sent to the process plant. The 150,000 t/d comminution circuit design considers high-pressure grind roll crushing followed by ball mill grinding. Conventional sulphide flotation would follow the comminution stage and is expected to produce a gold and silver-rich copper concentrate.

“Groundwater for the process plant would be supplied from nearby aquifers to the plant site, and power would be supplied via 250 km of power line construction to connect to the Argentine national grid,” NGEx said.

Concentrates would be trucked from the plant to the port of Caldera in Chile, approximately 380 km by road from the Josemaría plant site, requiring the construction of 57 km of new road to connect to the public highway.

NGEx CEO,  said: “The PFS shows robust economics and confirms the great potential of Josemaría. Long-term copper fundamentals are strong, and the global project pipeline is at multi-decade lows. We believe that this scarcity will lead to premium valuations for companies with construction-ready projects.

“We plan to work towards fast-tracking Josemaría towards production by starting work on a feasibility study, securing water rights, and advancing our environmental permitting plans.”

Sandvik to show off OptiMine capabilities at Hindustan Zinc’s SK zinc-lead-silver mine

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Sandvik is set to deliver one of the most comprehensive digital offerings globally at Hindustan Zinc’s Sindesar Khurd (SK) zinc-lead-silver mine in Rajasthan, India.

The company will use its OEM-independent OptiMine® digital solutions to ensure all required infrastructure and platforms are established to achieve world-class mining safety, efficiency and productivity, it said.

The system includes a comprehensive set of features for short interval control of the underground operations, including: OptiMine Monitoring, Location Tracking and Mine Visualization, Scheduler, Task Management and OptiMine Analytics, the latter with IBM Watson IoT. The system will be commissioned in 2019.

For this programme, Sandvik is partnering with Newtrax Technologies, which will deliver personnel tracking with cap lamps, tracking and telemetry data for the entire mobile underground fleet, including non-Sandvik equipment, numbering more than 150 drills, loaders, trucks and other equipment. The Newtrax offering will be seamlessly integrated with the Sandvik OptiMine digital platform creating an integrated mine management solution at the SK mine.

Patrick Murphy, President Product Area Rock Drills and Technologies at Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology, said: “Sandvik OptiMine modules can be combined as needed to build up the required functionality and to optimise mining operations. With open interfaces, the solution can also be integrated to other mine IT systems. This interoperability is crucial in enabling our customers to leverage the full value of digitalisation.

“Vedanta Hindustan Zinc has a vision of what the mine of the future will look like, and we’re excited to collaborate with them to make it happen at SK mine. The capability of this system will be virtually unmatched globally in underground hard-rock mining in terms of both scope and scale.”

Sunil Duggal, CEO at Hindustan Zinc, said: “We at Hindustan Zinc are leveraging digital solutions to improve our availability, utilisation and productivity at the SK Mine. With OptiMine, we will be able to plan, schedule and monitor overall operations in real time. This will add major value and increase our productivity, eliminating bottlenecks and allowing us to measure and monitor our key performance indicators in real time, proactively addressing problems before they occur.”

Hindustan Zinc is one of the world’s largest integrated producers of zinc and among leading global lead and silver producers. Its core business comprises of mining and smelting of zinc and lead along with captive power generation. It has a metal production capacity of more than 1 Mt/y with lead-zinc mines in Rampura Agucha and Sindesar Khurd; and key modern smelting complexes in Chanderiya and Dariba, all in Rajasthan, India.

SK Mine is a highly mechanised underground mine with an ore production capacity of 5.5 Mt/y. The mine’s products are zinc and lead concentrate and the mining method used is blasthole open stoping.

OptiMine is a digital platform for analysing and optimising mining production and processes. It integrates all relevant data into one source, delivering both real-time and predictive insights to improve operations. OptiMine is open, scalable, and adaptable to automated and manual applications.

OptiMine Analytics, with IBM Watson IoT, is the next generation of OptiMine that transforms data into process improvement via predictive insights and actionable dashboards embedded into operation management systems. The solution is part of the digital partnership between Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology and IBM and is backed by Sandvik and IBM digital experts around the globe.

NQ Minerals wraps up Hellyer offtake with latest Traxys deal

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NQ Minerals, a week after confirming the first sale of concentrate from its Hellyer tailings project, has entered into an additional marketing and offtake agreement with Traxys Europe that covers all the precious metal and pyrite concentrate to be produced over the first five years of operation.

The agreement includes the facility for prepayment against concentrate deliveries and provides Hellyer with access to Traxys’s extensive global network and experienced marketing and distribution team, NQ said.

NQ Minerals’ 2017 acquisition of Hellyer, in Tasmania, Australia, allows the opportunity to fully process the mine’s tailings.

Held within four separate areas, the tailings total a JORC-compliant resource of 9.5 Mt host to gold at 2.61 g/t Au for 796,000 oz, silver at 104 g/t Ag for 32 Moz Ag, lead at 3.03% Pb for 287,800 t and zinc at 2.5% Zn for 237,900 t. In addition to these tailings, the Hellyer mine assets include a large pre-existing mill facility and full supporting infrastructure, including a direct rail line to port.

The company has successfully ramped up the mill since acquisition, with flotation commissioning commencing at Hellyer in September after successful tails dredging and pumping slurry from the main tailings dam to the mill.

NQ Minerals and Traxys previously entered into two marketing and offtake agreements, combined with a $10 million secured prepayment facility agreement, with Traxys for the sale of lead and zinc concentrates over the first five years of operations.

Agnico Eagle Mines looks to ore sorting for higher-grade gold-silver feed at Pinos Altos

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Agnico Eagle Mines is in the process of installing an ore sorting pilot plant at its Pinos Altos gold-silver operation in Mexico as it looks to improve the feed grade to its processing facilities.

The announcement came in the company’s September quarter financial results, which also mentioned a planned trial of automated underground mining equipment at the La Ronde Zone 5 mine in the Abitibi region of Quebec, Canada.

Agnico said testing of the ore sorter was expected to begin later this month and continue for some six months.

“Over this period, samples will be processed from all the orebodies to determine the merits of implementing the technology in Mexico,” the company said, adding that similar ore sorting pilot testing was being considered at the company’s other operating regions.

Pinos Altos is an open pit and underground operation that produced close to 250,000 oz of gold last year.

GR Engineering gets the Abra lead-silver DFS gig

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Galena Mining has retained Australia-based GR Engineering Services to carry out the bulk of the definitive feasibility study (DFS) on its Abra lead-silver project in Western Australia.

The engineering company will undertake key portions of the DFS related to plant design, capital and operating cost estimation, and process and non-process infrastructure evaluation.

The commencement of the study comes following an “excellent” prefeasibility study for Abra, according to Galena. This envisaged a 1.2 Mt/y underground mine and conventional flotation concentrator for the project, producing a high-grade lead-silver concentrate containing some 91,000 t/y of lead and 760,000 oz/y of silver over a 14-year mine life.

GR Engineering Managing Director, Geoff Jones said: “GR Engineering was involved in the Abra PFS and we are pleased to have been engaged to deliver key aspects of the DFS and to assist Galena to realise the significant potential of the Abra base metals project.”

The DFS is targeted for completion in mid-2019. In the meantime, Galena expects to make progress on a number of other milestones including an updated resource, a review of the Abra ore reserve and underground mine design/schedule, permitting, and continuation of discussions related to offtake and project finance.

Galena is targeting commencement of construction at Abra in 2019, followed by initial production in 2021 and the first full year of steady-state commercial output in 2022.

During the past 11 years, GR Engineering has completed more than 40 design and construction projects and over 160 feasibility studies including a number of Australia base metals projects, Galena said.

CSA Global scopes out Myanmar Metals’ Bawdwin polymetallic project

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Myanmar Metals’ Baldwin polymetallic project looks like having at least 13 years of operating life in it, according to a scoping study carried out by CSA Global.

The study, which featured the China Pit as a starter operation, outlined a 1.8 Mt/y operation producing some 1.6 Mt of lead-silver-copper concentrate and 994,000 t of zinc concentrate over the life of mine could be built for $191 million in upfront capital.

Bawdwin, on the eastern side of Myanmar, has been mined by both open pit and underground means in the past, with over 100 years of documented operations providing Myanmar Metals and CSA Global with a good understanding of the geometry and continuity of the mineralised lodes, Myanmar Metals said. The ASX-listed company has a 51% participating interest in the project held through a contractual joint venture.

John Lamb, Executive Chairman and CEO of Myanmar Metals, said: “The China pit is the opening move in bringing the Bawdwin polymetallic province back into production.”

He added that this pit is likely to be the first of least three (Shan and Meingtha being the others) on the Bawdwin concession, followed by a “long-life underground mining operation”.

Myanmar Metals has proven up a 81.8 Mt indicated and inferred resource grading 4.8% Pb, 2.4% Zn, 0.24% Cu and 119 ppm Ag at the China Pit, but only 21 Mt of mineable material has been factored into this scoping study.

The company has already started its prefeasibility study on the project, with completion set for the March quarter. Myanmar Metals anticipates carrying out a further feasibility study in late 2019.

It has already signed up the likes of Battery Limits, Coffey International, CSA Global, Titeline Drilling and Valentis Services for these studies.

Sotkamo Silver hopes XRT ore sorting technology will lead to upgrade

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Sotkamo Silver is looking to become one of the few precious metal operators using X-ray Transmission (XRT) ore sorting technology at its project in Kainuu, central Finland.

The project, which IM visited as part of the Finland Mine Safari for analysts and investors organised by Mining Finland this week, is expected to start production in the March quarter, ramping up to initial capacity of 350,000-450,000 t/y from a combined open-pit and underground operation.

At this rate, the mine should produce some 1.1 Moz/y of payable silver over a seven year life at all-in cash cost of around $9/oz, along with significant amounts of zinc, lead and gold within three saleable concentrates (Ag-Au-Pb, Zn-Ag and pyrite-Ag).

In order to cut processing costs and improve grades, Sotkamo is looking to install an Outotec-TOMRA XRT ore sorter at the operation. The machine, which will be acquired through a low interest loan from a Business Finland subsidiary, will be used after two-stage crushing (jaw and cone crushers) has taken place and the rock is some 30-70 mm in size.

Test work in 2015 on some 2,200 kg of Sotkamo samples showed the silver content from low-grade ore  increased some 1.9x to 116 g/t Ag, while the average silver content in ore was boosted 1.43x to 195 g/t Ag. Silver recovery from low-grade ore samples was 88%, while average ore-grade recoveries were 89%.

In addition to this, about 60% of the rock previously classified as low-grade ore was removed as gangue with the XRT trial at TOMRA’s facility in Germany, with some 43% of rock reporting as gangue from the average grade ore samples.

CEO Dr Timo Lindborg said the sorting technology did not locate the silver within the ore, but recognised lead. This would enable the company to upgrade the silver grade within ore reporting to subsequent grinding, flotation and filtration processes.

During the site visit, IM saw the mill building being constructed, witnessed pre-stripping of the openpit and works on the tailings facility, and saw the already-completed decline down to 350 m depth.

The company is currently in the process of selecting a mining contractor to carry out both openpit (conventional truck and shovel) and underground (longitudinal bench and fill, using cemented backfill where necessary) works.

The 2017 technical report envisaged using electric-hydraulic production drilling jumbos, diesel LHDs (remote controlled where possible) and diesel dump trucks underground for mining the 20 m high, 60-70 m long and 5-30 m wide stopes, along with backhoe excavators and articulated or dump trucks for open-pit mining.

Sotkamo Silver expects to extend the 2.6 km-long decline, which was constructed by Outokumpu back in 1993, down to the 750 m level in year three, while it is also weighing up the use of both solar and wind power at the operation further down the line.