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Mexico

San Martin Mine

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San Martin Mine

Location: 44 km E from Santiago de Querétaro, Querétaro, Mexico

Address:

Ranchería San Martín
Colon
Querétaro, Mexico
76280

Contacts:

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Categories

Overview

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Gold
  • Silver
Mining Method
  • Room-and-pillar
  • Cut & Fill
Backfill type ... Lock
Production Start... Lock
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotDuring 2023, Starcore has been investigating small mines near San Martin as merger candidates and/or a possible source of further ore to San Martin to allow to utilize additional idle capacity of plant.

On August 21, 2024, Starcore announced that mining operations have been temporarily suspended at San Martin Mine due to an unscheduled inspection at the mine conducted by the Mexican Labor Department. The inspection followed a recent singular fatality at the mine. Starcore expects have mining operations resume within a week.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Starcore International Mines Ltd. 100 % Indirect
Compañia Minera Peña de Bernal, S.A. de C.V. (operator) 100 % Direct
Starcore is engaged in exploring, extracting and processing gold and silver through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Compañia Minera Peña de Bernal, S.A. de C.V. (“Bernal”), which owns the San Martin mine in Queretaro, Mexico.

Contractors

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SourceSource

Deposit type

  • Vein / narrow vein
  • Epithermal

Summary:

The San Martín gold-silver district hosts classic, medium-grade gold-silver, epithermal vein deposits characterized by low sulphidation mineralization and adularia-sericite alteration. The San Martin veins are typical of most other epithermal silver-gold vein deposits in Mexico in that they are primarily hosted in the Upper Cretaceous black limestone and calcareous shales of the Soyatal-Mexcala Formation. Tertiary Lower Volcanic series of rhyolite flows, pyroclastics and epiclastics, overlain the sediments.

Mineralisation is generally made up of breccia that commonly is concordant with a limestone/shale contact (in the San Martin and San José areas) which forms the relatively steeply dipping “Tronco” and “Mantos” oreshoots, these veins contact the younger volcanic flows (dacite and ignimbrite) where they have formed the more horizontal portions of the deposit. The mineralized economic breccia grades from 30 g Ag/t to 250 g Ag/t. Exploration has been concentrated along the NE trending breccia zone however evidence of a northerly trend in area 30 and 31 leads to suspect possible other structures together with 2.0 g Au/t to 30 g Au/t over widths that vary from 1.5 to 17.0 m but averaging 4.0 m.

Mineralization at San Martín occurs in association with an epithermal low sulphidation, quartz-carbonate, fracture- filling vein hosted by a structure trending approximately N40°- 60°E, dipping to the 50° to 90° to the southeast.

The San Martin structure has been known in different stages of exploration and has adopted several names, San José, San José II, San Martín, Cuerpo 28, Cuerpo 29, Cuerpo 30 and Cuerpo 31. The structure itself is offset by a series of faults of northeast trending that divides the oreshoots. The structure behaves vertical at the San José and San Martin areas (Tronco) and becomes flatter from Cuerpo 28 to 31 (Mantos), and mineralization follows the planes of the folded rocks.

The San Martin vein itself has been known underground traced for 2 km along trend, with widths between 1.5 to 10 metres and averages approximately 4.0 m. A secondary mineralized vein is located, both in the footwall and hangingwall, of the San Martin vein, on the wetern limb of the local fold that contains the mineralization. This structure is the Santa Elena and represents a good target for exploration to the NE and SE of San Martin.

The San Martin deposit is composed by a tabular, vein-like subvertical mineralised structure that becomes to a sub-horizontal mineralised structure or “manto-like” close to surface. This mineralised structure is recognized for over 2 km along strike, with thicknesses between 1.5 and 17 metres and 400 m of vertical extent or “favourable zone”. In general, the mineralisation is hosted in the contact of limestone-shale of Soyatal-Mexcala Formation and associated to a silicified rhyolitic dike.

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

CommodityUnits202320222021202020192018201720162015
Gold koz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe1412141718
Silver koz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe224102669797
Gold Equivalent koz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe1613151820
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.

Operational metrics

Metrics202320222021202020192018201720162015
Daily milling rate  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe650 t850 t
Daily milling capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe1,100 t1,100 t
Tonnes milled  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe301.9 kt269.6 kt275.1 kt306.9 kt311.9 kt
Daily ore mining rate  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe650 t850 t

Production Costs

CommodityUnits2023202220212020201920182017
Cash costs Gold Equivalent USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,061 / oz   1,237 / oz   969 / oz  
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold Equivalent USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,336 / oz   1,782 / oz   1,112 / oz  

Operating Costs

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

Financials

Units2023202220212020201920182017
Capital expenditures M CAD  ....  Subscribe 2.2  
Revenue M CAD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 32.8   27.8   27.2  
Pre-tax Income M CAD  ....  Subscribe -9.6  
After-tax Income M CAD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe -11.8   -12   7.2  
Earnings M CAD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 0.04   -4.9   0.8  
EBITDA M CAD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 0   -5.2   3.5  
Operating Cash Flow M CAD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 0  

Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Oct 23, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Oct 23, 2023

EmployeesContractorsTotal WorkforceYear
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2023
...... Subscription required 2022
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Aerial view:

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