Mining Intelligence and News
Mexico

Nieves Project

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Categories

Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StagePreliminary Economic Assessment
Commodities
  • Silver
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotBlackberry Ventures goal is to create an Open Pit Mine. There are very few open pit silver mines in the world. A world-class viable silver resource mineable by open pit able to produce 5M ounces of silver per year for >10 years.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Blackberry Ventures I, LLC 100 % Direct

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Epithermal
  • Vein / narrow vein

Summary:

The Nieves project is a low sulfidation epithermal silver deposit hosted in three east-northeast trending, steeply south dipping vein systems with alteration and mineralization bearing strong similarities to the Fresnillo silver deposit.

The most economically significant mineralization occurs in anastomosing carbonate-quartzsulphide veins that have been defined over a total strike length of 3.8 kilometers by 54,814 meters of drilling in 187 holes. The system develops to a maximum true width of in excess of 200 meters and has a proven down dip extent of approximately 525 meters.

The carbonate-quartz-sulphide veins contain the best grades of silver, gold, lead and zinc. This vein type consists of calcite that is partially to totally replaced by grey to white, chalcedonic, fine-grained quartz veins and veinlets. Individual veins vary in size from a few centimetres in width with a few up to 1.5 m wide with up to 50% sulphide minerals. Sulphides include pyrite, stibnite, sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite and the silver sulphosalts: proustite, pyrargyrite, jamesonite and scarce tetrahedrite.

The central and most important of the three vein systems is the Concordia-San Gregorio-Dolores system which includes both the La Quinta and Gregorio North zones. Mineralization along the Concordia-San Gregorio-Dolores vein has a known total strike length of 1,300 meters and a true width up to 100 meters. The mineralized zone in the Gregorio North area is approximately 1,200 meters long and up to 200 meters wide. The La Quinta and Gregorio North zones are the subject of the resource estimate in this report. Only the La Quinta zone has a designed open pit for the economic assessment.

The attitude and size of the mineralized zones along the Santa Rita zone to the south and California vein system to the north are not well understood at this stage of exploration. Drilling along the Santa Rita system suggests that the mineralized zone is at least 750 meters long and may be up to 340 meters wide. The mineralized zone along the California vein system is at least 550 meters long and may be up to 130 meters wide.

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

CommodityProductUnitsAvg. AnnualLOM
Silver Concentrate kt 288
Silver Payable metal koz 5,23652,365
Silver Metal in concentrate koz 55,553
Gold Payable metal koz 2.525
Gold Metal in concentrate koz 41

Production Costs

CommodityUnitsEstimated
Assumed price Silver USD 27 / oz *  USD
Assumed price Gold USD 1,300 / oz *  USD
* According to 2014 study / presentation.

Operating Costs

Currency2024
OP mining costs ($/t mined) USD 1.1 *  USD
OP mining costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
Processing costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
G&A ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
Total operating costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2014 study.

Project Costs

MetricsUnitsLOM Total
Initial CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Sustaining CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Total CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
OP OpEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Processing OpEx $M USD 333.4
G&A costs $M USD 49.9
Total OpEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Income Taxes $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Royalty payments $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Gross revenue (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax Cash Flow (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax Cash Flow (LOM) $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax NPV @ 0% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax NPV @ 5% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax NPV @ 8% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax NPV @ 0% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax NPV @ 5% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax NPV @ 8% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax IRR, %  ......  Subscribe
After-tax IRR, %  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax payback period, years  ......  Subscribe
After-tax payback period, years  ......  Subscribe

Required Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameEmailRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ........... Subscription required Dec 18, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ........... Subscription required Dec 18, 2023

Aerial view:

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