The mine was accomplished inside finances and has been efficiently producing on a pre-production foundation for a number of months, Luca said, including that processing charges will now begin to ramp as much as industrial ranges of roughly 800 tonnes per day.
“Tahuehueto is ready to turn into the second cornerstone asset at Luca. We’re in the end focusing on at the very least 50,000 oz. gold-equivalent annual manufacturing from this mine,” Luca Mining CEO Dan Barnholden commented on the milestone.
“Processing charges are presently averaging 450 tonnes per day, and we count on to steadily enhance over the approaching weeks to succeed in industrial manufacturing in September 2024,” he stated.
Whereas it ramps up the mine’s manufacturing capability, the corporate will even actively proceed its underground improvement efforts. Useful resource drilling from underground is anticipated to start within the coming weeks, it stated.
Tahuehueto covers a giant property (121 sq. km.) that hosts an intensive epithermal gold vein system with lower than 10% of the potential floor explored thus far. It lies in a historic mining area that hosted the well-known San Dimas gold mine, which has an analogous type of mineralization and has produced over 11 million oz. up to now.
Mineral reserves on the Tahuehueto deposit are estimated to complete 3.6 million tonnes at grades of two.55 grams per tonne gold and 50.1 g/t silver, for 294,000 oz. of gold and 5.8 million oz. of silver. A 2022 PFS outlined an 11-year mine averaging annual manufacturing of roughly 26,000 oz. of gold and 454,000 oz. of silver.
Along with Tahuehueto, Luca owns the Campo Morado mine in Guerrero state, which produces copper-zinc-lead concentrates with treasured metals credit. The operation is presently present process an optimization program to enhance its restoration and grades.
In 2024, the corporate expects to supply between 60,000 to 70,000 oz. of gold equal, together with 43,000-50,000 oz. from Campo Morado and 17,000-20,000 oz. from the brand new Tahuehueto mine.