click to enlarge images
Map of Mexico |
Map of Guanajuato State |
Project Location Map |
Headframe At Cebada |
Ball Mill |
|  |
- Production
YEAR |
SILVER (oz) |
GOLD (oz) |
SILVER EQUIV. (oz) |
2007
(8 months) |
228,000 |
2,360 |
358,000 |
2006 |
256,000 |
3,350 |
440,000 |
Gold converted to silver at a 55:1 ratio.
- Costs - Cash cost per oz. silver in 2006 were US$ 5.82 after deducting gold credits.During the transition year of 2007 costs rose to $20.00+ per oz.and are projected to decline in 2008 and beyond as efficiencies
from ongoing capital improvement programs start to take effect.
- Reserves & Resources
2007 Reserves and Resources NI-43101 Compliant
Reserves - Probable
Tonnes |
Ag g/t |
Au g/t |
Ag oz |
Au oz |
103,262 |
209 |
1.4 |
693,869 |
4,648 |
Resources-Measured and Indicated
Tonnes |
Ag g/t |
Au g/t |
Ag oz |
Au oz |
41,810 |
193 |
2.11 |
259,086 |
2,840 |
Resources-Inferred
Tonnes |
Ag g/t |
Au g/t |
Ag oz |
Au oz |
320,439 |
218 |
2.04 |
2,234,445 |
21,060 |
- Grade - Silver grade is 200 grams/tonne and gold is 1.87 grams/tonne. This equates to 8.6 oz. per ton silver equivalents. Historic grades were reported to be 300+ grams/tonne silver plus 3.0+
grams/tonne gold.
- Width - Widths range from 1 -- 30 metres wide and average 2 -- 3 metres.
- Infrastructure - Approximately 5 kilometers from the city of Guanajuato with good road access, power and water plus trained work force on site.
- Land Package - 2071 hectares (5115 acres)
Silver was originally discovered by Spanish explorers at La Luz in 1548, and subsequently at Guanajuato in 1552. Guanajuato is considered to be one of the top three historic silver mining districts in Mexico, having produced an estimated 1 to 1.2 billion oz silver and 5 to 6 million oz gold. At their peak during the 1700's, the silver mines of Guanajuato and La Luz were thought to be the largest and richest silver mines in the world.
Industrias Penoles SA de CV ("Penoles"), one of Mexico's largest industrial and mining conglomerates, developed the Bolanitos and Las Torres mines and plants in the La Luz and Guanajuato districts respectively in the 1970's.
When the price of silver bottomed after 2000, Penoles leased many of its smaller silver mining operations to local mining companies.
The Veta Madre and La Luz veins are classic, low sulfidation epithermal vein systems. Mineralization consists of disseminations and fracture-fillings of pyrite, pyrargygrite, polybasite and electrum in quartz-calcite veins ranging from 1 to 30 metres thick but averaging 2 to 3 m wide. Multiple historic ore zones (now stopes) formed steep-plunging shoots 100 to 500 m long that were mined down to depths of 200 to 600 m. More than 30 shafts were driven historically into the two vein systems on the Bolanitos and Cebada properties, of which five are still active.
Ruins of the Old Plant |
Conveyor Belt |
The Process Plant |
Exiting the Bolanitos Mine |
Working the Mine Face at Bolanitos
|
Ball Mill |
Crushing Circuit |
Town of Guanajuato |
|
| |
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)