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Colombia

El Roble Mine

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El Roble Mine

Location: 72 km SW from Medellin, Colombia

Regional Office:

Carrera 43 N 1A SUR-69 Oficina 701 Edificio
Medellín
Colombia

Contacts:

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Categories

Summary

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Copper
  • Gold
  • Silver
Mining Method
  • Drift & Fill
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SnapshotThe El Roble Mine is an underground copper, gold, and silver operation with an associated processing plant. Its primary product is copper concentrate, with gold and silver as by-products.

On May 23, 2025, Atico Mining and the National Mining Agency (NMA) signed a new 30-year mining agreement, securing the related title for the El Roble mine. Additionally, the metal concentrate inventory previously pledged as security in favor of the NMA was released from the pledge.

As of 2024, the transition to the new zones in the El Roble mine experienced delayed by unforeseen rock quality challenges, which affected both tonnage and head grade as access to stopes was slowed down.

It is assumed that the mine will close by 2027, although management anticipates potential extensions.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Atico Mining Corp. 90 % Indirect
Minera El Roble S.A. (operator) 100 % Direct
On November 22, 2013, Atico Mining acquired 90% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Minera El Roble S.A. (“MINER”), the owner of the El Roble mining property (“El Roble”), an operating copper-gold mine in Colombia.

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • VMS

Summary:

The El Roble massive sulfide mineralization is classified as the ‘mafic-type volcanogenic massive sulphide type’.

Atico geologists and other workers use four major rock classifications to described the geology of El Roble license areas. The lowest unit is a submarine mafic volcanic unit up to several kilometers thick. Whole rock (NaO, K2O, MgO, FeO) analyses reported by Ortiz et al. (1990) place the basalt flows in the tholeiitic field. The mafic volcanic unit is overlain by a “black chert unit” up to 30 m thick and turn these grades upwards into a pelagic sedimentary unit, locally termed the “grey chert” up to 120 m thick. The entire package is topped by a sandstone-mudstone, turbidite unit several kilometers thick. The massive sulfide deposits are hosted in the black chert and grey chert units always occurring within meters of the uppermost mafic volcanic contact. The succession of basalt flows, black to grey chert and overlying pelagic sedimentary rocks and sandstone-shale turbidites sequence has been intruded by andesite and latite dikes which post date and disrupt the massive sulfide mineralization.

Mineralization
The El Roble deposit consists a series of massive sulfide lenses, separated by faulting and are the dismembered fragments of once coherent, single, massive sulphide body. The mineral deposit that comprises the El Roble Project consists of mafic-type volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) mineralization for which there are numerous examples in the world. The host rocks for the VMS mineralization present on the MINER El Roble mineral concessions consist of basalt flows, black to grey chert and overlying deep-water sedimentary rocks, and sandstone. The deposition of the VMS mineralization is syngenetic with the black chert, which generally forms both the hanging wall and footwall “host” to the mineralization. The portion of the El Roble deposit currently being mined by MINER has been overturned by folding such that it now dips steeply to the east. Based on the drill hole data provided by MINER as of the effective date of this amended Technical Report, the dimensions of the deposit currently are 325 meters along strike by ±600 meters deep and up to 45 meters in thickness. Continuity of the mineralization is locally disrupted by Tertiary andesite and latite dikes up to 10 meters in width that intrude both the VMS mineralization and the host rocks. Strands of one of the major regional northwest-striking faults have resulted in conjugate N-S, E-W NW-SE faults offset the mineralization particularly below the 2100 level of the mine.

The massive sulphide mineralisation is fine-grained, with only locally evident internal structure or banding, consisting predominantly of fine-grained pyrite and chalcopyrite. Pyrite occurs as euhedral and subhedral grains that vary from 0.04 to 0.01 millimeters in diameter. Colloform pyrite textures and crushed pyrite grains are also common. Chalcopyrite typically fills spaces between pyrite grains, along with minor pyrrhotite and sphalerite; no other sulphide minerals have been identified. Gold occurs as electrum in 10- to 100-micron irregular grains in the spaces between pyrite grains. Minor silver is also present, presumably as a component of the electrum. Gangue minerals include quartz and chlorite along with lesser calcite, dolomite and minor hematite and magnetite.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Heavy Mobile Equipment

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EV - Electric

Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Commodity Production

CommodityProductUnits20252024202320222021202020192018201720162015
Copper Metal in concentrate M lbs  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe17 22 21 19 12 
Copper Concentrate kt  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe35 45 43 41 29 
Gold Metal in concentrate oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe10,480 11,344 10,923 11,159 10,994 
Copper Payable metal M lbs  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe1621201811
Gold Payable metal oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe9,64310,2769,891
Silver Metal in concentrate oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe36,70042,56940,28337,82035,964
^ Guidance / Forecast.

Operational metrics

Metrics20252024202320222021202020192018201720162015
Tonnes milled  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe236,354 t285,551 t256,078 t242,717 t178,095 t
Daily milling rate  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe859 t827 t790 t788 t638 t
Daily milling capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe850 t850 t800 t800 t800 t
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe231,746 t278,504 t269,034 t244,717 t179,995 t
^ Guidance / Forecast.

Production Costs

CommodityUnits202520242023202220212020201920182017
Cash costs Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 462.17 / oz   233.56 / oz   91.5 / oz  
Cash costs Copper USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1.24 / lb **   1.49 / lb **   1.44 / lb **  
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Copper USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1.81 / lb **   1.94 / lb **   2.05 / lb **  
All-in costs Copper USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 2.15 / lb **   2.31 / lb **   2.23 / lb **  
^ Guidance / Forecast.
** Net of By-Product.

Operating Costs

Currency202420232022202120202019201820172016
UG mining costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Processing costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Total operating costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe

Mine Financials

Units20242023202220212020201920182017
Capital expenditures M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 8.6   11.7   10.2  
Sustaining costs M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 3.2   4.2   6.6  
Revenue M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 61.4   54.6   57  
Operating Income M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 16.3   12.8   15.3  
Pre-tax Income M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 10   6.6   6.3  
After-tax Income M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 6.9   3.4   4  
Operating Cash Flow M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 17.8   15.1   16.7  

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jun 30, 2025
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Workforce

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