TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Mexico-focused miner First Majestic Silver has completed a new Canadian National Instrument 43-101-compliant technical report on its La Guitarra silver mine, in Mexico, which validated the reason the company bought the property from Silvermex Resources in 2012.
President and CEO Keith Neumeyer said since buying the mine, the company’s geological and technical teams had examined more than 900 historical drill holes and drilling several added holes to create what was now the new base-line reserve and resource estimates that would form the starting point to build on in the coming years.
“This large property has extremely exciting geological potential and this first technical report prepared by our team points to the reason why we first decided to buy this mine in 2012,” Neumeyer noted.
The new technical report calculated proven and probable reserves of 11.8-million ounces of silver equivalent, including 9.4-million ounces of pure silver. The measured and indicated resources category comprised 15.2-million ounces of silver equivalent, including 11.7-million ounces of silver.
Further, the La Guitarra mine held an estimated 6.3-million silver equivalent ounces, including 4.7-million ounces of silver in the inferred category.
The average reserve silver grade was 223 g/t and for gold 1.06 g/t.
The report estimated that La Guitarra could produce 9.3-million ounces of silver and 45 000 oz of gold over the expected seven-year mine life.
The life-of-mine operating cost a tonne was estimated at $48.31, excluding general and administrative costs, sustaining costs and exploration.
The La Guitarra silver mine was in the historical Temascaltepec mining district, in Mexico, consisting of 43 mining concessions, covering 39 714 ha. This district was a historically significant mining area, as operations at La Guitarra first began in the early fifteenth century and continued until the nineteenth century.
La Guitarra comprised two operating mines, La Guitarra and Coloso, and three past producing areas, the Nazareno, Mina de Agua and El Rincón, which were now considered as exploration areas.