Overview
Stage | Preliminary Economic Assessment |
Mine Type | Open Pit |
Commodities |
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Mining Method |
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Mine Life | 31 years (as of Jan 1, 2022) |
The Metates Project is one of the world’s largest undeveloped gold-silver deposits.
Delivery of a Metates Prefeasibility study expected in H2/24. |
Source:
p. 18
The Metates property is composed of twelve contiguous concessions totaling 4,261 hectares in area. These concessions are held in the name of American Gold Metates, S. de R.L. de C.V., an 99.9%-owned subsidiary of Chesapeake.
Contractors
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Deposit Type
- Sediment-hosted
- Intrusion related
Summary:
The local geology shows that the Metates site is situated within a window of Mesozoic basement rocks, exposed by erosion of the extensive flat-lying Tertiary volcanic cover.
The Mesozoic sedimentary sequence generally strikes northwest and dips between 30° and 40° to the northeast. Folding generally parallels the strike of the sedimentary rocks and tends to be of a concentric to isoclinal nature. Faults have often developed parallel to isoclinal fold axes. Soft sediment deformational features are common in the sedimentary units. The Metates Intrusive is oriented in a northwest-southeast direction, dipping 40° to the northeast, and is broadly conformable to the trend of the surrounding sediments. The upper contact of the Metates Intrusive is a sedimentary or erosional type breccia or conglomerate (owing to the rounded clasts), while the lower contact is quite regular and could be a fault.
Major high angle faults in the project area trend northwest to northeast. Faults of a northeast orientation may possibly offset the Metates Intrusive, and have caused deformations and drag folds where they cut the sediments. Northwest trending faults are common, and trend parallel to the strike of the sediments. Within the sedimentary rocks, fracture directions and sulphide veinlets most commonly trend north-northeast. Stockwork mineralization follows fractures in the intrusive body, with the most common orientation being northwestsoutheast. The Upper and Lower Volcanic ........
Summary:
The Metates mine will be a conventional open pit mine. Mine operations will consist of drilling holes with medium diameter (approximately 20.3 cm) blast holes, blasting with emulsions and ANFO (ammonium nitrate/fuel oil) depending on water conditions, and loading plant feed into large off-road trucks with hydraulic shovels and wheel loaders.
The mine production schedule is based on four mining phases. The phases are based on 25 m wide roads at a maximum grade of 10% and adequate working room for equipment. The road width is adequate for trucks of the 90 mt class, such as Caterpillar 777 trucks. Phases 1 and 2 are north of the San Nicholas drainage so it is not impacted by initial mining. Mining phase 3 is mined in three parts. Phase 3A is south of the San Nicholas drainage and mines to the final pit limits on the south side of the pit, down to the drainage level. Phase 3B is north of San Nicholas and mines down to the drainage level. Phase 3C continues mining the pit to depth.
The mine production schedule is based on supplying 15,000 tpd, or 5,475 ktpy of material to the primary crusher.
The final pit and the various waste storage areas and stockpiles include the following:
-The sediment resource stockpile, north of the pit, contains of 207.4 Mt at 0.40 g/t gold and 18.4 g/t silver. This is 2.65 Moz of contained gold and 122.6 Moz of contained silver.
-The non-acid generating (NAG) waste storage area east of the pit contains 42.9 Mt. ........
Source:
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Flow Sheet:
Summary:
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Source:
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Reserves at January 28, 2023:
Mineral Resources are based on a gold equivalent cut-off grade of 0.26 g/t.
Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
Measured
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31.1 Mt
|
Gold
|
0.86 g/t
|
0.86 M oz
|
Measured
|
31.1 Mt
|
Silver
|
18.1 g/t
|
18.1 M oz
|
Measured
|
31.1 Mt
|
Gold Equivalent
|
1.1 g/t
|
|
Indicated
|
890.1 Mt
|
Gold
|
0.75 g/t
|
15.91 M oz
|
Indicated
|
890.1 Mt
|
Silver
|
14.2 g/t
|
405.1 M oz
|
Indicated
|
890.1 Mt
|
Gold Equivalent
|
0.75 g/t
|
|
Measured & Indicated
|
921.2 Mt
|
Gold
|
0.57 g/t
|
16.77 M oz
|
Measured & Indicated
|
921.2 Mt
|
Silver
|
14.3 g/t
|
423.2 M oz
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Measured & Indicated
|
921.2 Mt
|
Gold Equivalent
|
0.76 g/t
|
|
Inferred
|
139.5 Mt
|
Gold
|
0.47 g/t
|
2.13 M oz
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Inferred
|
139.5 Mt
|
Silver
|
13.2 g/t
|
59 M oz
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Inferred
|
139.5 Mt
|
Gold Equivalent
|
0.65 g/t
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