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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

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Overview

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Copper
  • Gold
  • Silver
Mining Method
  • Drift & Fill
Backfill type ... Lock
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Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotEl Roble, the only copper mine in production in Colombia. The El Roble mine is an underground copper, gold and silver mine and processing plant. Its commercial product is a copper concentrate with gold and silver by-product credits.

The Atico Mining continues to work towards obtaining a new contract to renew title on its claims hosting the El Roble property, as its 30- year contract expired on January 23, 2022. The Company has been allowed to continue operating the El Roble mine while the process for the contract and title renewal continues. Atico is working diligently with the National Mining Agency for the issuance of the new title, and while the Company believes the process is progressing favourably, no assurance can be made that the renewal will be obtained.

El Roble mine is implementing two projects to reduce costs in the transport to the process plant stockpile and crushing/grinding of the ore as well improving the cemented rock fill.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Atico Mining Corp. 90 % Indirect
Minera El Roble S.A. (operator) 100 % Direct
On November 22, 2013, the Company 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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SourceSource

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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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

CommodityProductUnits202320222021202020192018201720162015
Copper Payable metal M lbs  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe1621201811
Copper Metal in concentrate M lbs  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe1722211912
Copper Concentrate kt  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe3545434129
Gold Payable metal oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe9,64310,2769,891
Gold Metal in concentrate oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe10,48011,34410,92311,15910,994
Silver Metal in concentrate oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe36,70042,56940,28337,82035,964

Operational metrics

Metrics2024202320222021202020192018201720162015
Tonnes milled  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe236,354 t285,551 t256,078 t242,717 t178,095 t
Daily milling rate  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe859 t827 t790 t788 t638 t
Daily milling capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe850 t850 t800 t800 t800 t
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe231,746 t278,504 t269,034 t244,717 t179,995 t
^ Guidance / Forecast.

Production Costs

CommodityUnits20242023202220212020201920182017
Cash costs Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 462.17 / oz   233.56 / oz   91.5 / oz  
Cash costs Copper USD  ....  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 1.81 / lb **   1.94 / lb **   2.05 / lb **  
All-in costs Copper USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 2.15 / lb **   2.31 / lb **   2.23 / lb **  
^ Guidance / Forecast.
** Net of By-Product.

Operating Costs

Currency20232022202120202019201820172016
UG mining costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Processing costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Total operating costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe

Financials

Units2023202220212020201920182017
Capital expenditures M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 8.6   11.7   10.2  
Sustaining costs M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 3.2   4.2   6.6  
Revenue M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 61.4   54.6   57  
Operating Income M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 16.3   12.8   15.3  
Pre-tax Income M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 10   6.6   6.3  
After-tax Income M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 6.9   3.4   4  
Operating Cash Flow M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 17.8   15.1   16.7  

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Personnel

Mine Management

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Aerial view:

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