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Honduras
San Andres Mine

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 Location:
18 km W from Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras

  Address:
78 SW 7th St
Miami
Florida, United States
33130
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  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Costs & Financials
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

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Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeOpen Pit
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Processing
  • Heap leach
  • Carbon in column (CIC)
  • Elution
  • Carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR)
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
  • Cyanide (reagent)
Mine Life9 years (as of Jan 1, 2020)
On March 16, 2020, mining operations at San Andres were interrupted; and the Company reduced its workforce to the minimum. On May 26, 2020, the Company obtained authorization to fully resume operations at San Andres.
Latest NewsAura Minerals Provides Further Update Regarding Operations in Honduras     April 28, 2020


Owners

Source: p. 38
CompanyInterestOwnership
Aura Minerals Inc. 100 % Indirect
The Mine’s surface and mineral rights are owned by Minerales de Occidente, S.A. de C.V. (“Minosa”), a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Aura existing under the laws of Honduras.

Deposit Type

  • Vein / narrow vein
  • Epithermal


Summary:

The gold deposits at the Mine are hosted within Tertiary-aged felsic volcanic flows, tuffs and agglomerates, thick inter-bedded silica breccias, primarily containing volcanic fragments and tuffaceous sandstones. These volcanic units occur on the south (hanging wall side) of the San Andres Fault. The fault strikes west-east and dips at 60° to 70° south and it marks the northern boundary of the Water Tank Hill and East Ledge pits. The fault forms the contact between the Permian phyllites (metasediments) to the north and the volcanic units on the south. Mineralisation within the phyllites is limited to the Buffa Zone where quartz carbonate veining proximal to the San Andres Fault. South of the Mine area, where there is no alteration, the volcanic and sedimentary rocks have a distinctive hematite brick red color but, in the Mine area, they have been bleached to light buff yellow and grey colors due to alteration. The younger volcanic and sedimentary units typically have a shallow to moderate southerly dip and thicken to the south of the Mine area.

Structurally, the Mine area is transected by a series of sub-parallel, west to northeast-striking faults that are typically steeply dipping to the south and by numerous north and northwest-striking normal faults and extension fractures. The most prominent fault of the 35 first set is the San Andres Fault. The San Andres Fault is parallel to, and coeval with, a major set of west to north-northeast trending strike-slip faults that form the Motagua Suture Zone, which is continuous with the Cayman Trough.

The normal faults and extension fractures occur within the volcanic and sedimentary units on the south side of the San Andres Fault. Average strike of these structures is N25°W; dip is 50° to 80° to the southwest and northeast, forming grabens where the strata are locally offset. These faults and fractures are generally filled with banded quartz and blade calcite and have formed focal points the alteration and mineralisation fluids within the Mine area. These extensional structures are distributed over a wide area, from the East Ledge open pit to Quebrada Del Agua Caliente, approximately 1,500 m to the east, and from the San Andres Fault, for at least 1,200 m south and are coeval with the strike-slip faults.

The San Andrés deposit is classified as an epithermal gold deposit associated with extension structures within tectonic rift settings. These deposits commonly contain gold and silver mineralization, which is associated with banded quartz veins. At the Mine, however, silver does not occur in significant economic quantities. Gold occurs in quartz veins predominantly comprised of colloform banded quartz (generally chalcedony with lesser amounts of fine comb quartz, adularia, dark carbonate, and sulphide material). The gold mineralization is deposited as a result of the cooling and interaction of hydrothermal fluids with groundwater and the host rocks. The hydrothermal fluids may have migrated some distance from the source; however, there is no clear evidence at the Mine that the fluids or portions of the fluids have been derived from magmatic intrusions.

The rocks hosting the San Andrés deposit have been oxidized near surface as a result of weathering. The zone of oxidation varies in depth from 10 m to more than 100 m. The zone of oxidation is generally thicker in the East Ledge deposit compared to the Twin Hills deposit.

In the oxide zone, the pyrite has been altered to an iron oxide such as hematite, goethite, or jarosite. The oxide zone generally overlies a zone of partial oxidation, called the mixed zone, which consists of both oxidized and sulphide material. The mixed zone may not occur continuously, but where it is present, it reaches thicknesses of over 50 m. below the zone of oxidation; the gold is commonly associated with sulphide minerals such as pyrite. The sulphide, or “fresh”, zone lies below the mixed zone.

The gold contained in the oxide zone is amenable to extraction by heap leaching using a weak cyanide solution. The gold recovery is reduced in the mixed zone as a result of the presence of sulphide minerals and the gold cannot currently be recovered economically from the sulphide zone by heap leaching.

High clay content in the ore, resulting from alteration, is detrimental to the heap leaching process because of reduced through-put rates in the crushing plant and reduced permeability in the heap leach operation. This poor leaching situation is resolved by agglomerating the crushed ore by adding cement to increase the permeability of the heap prior to leaching.

Based on metallurgical studies, the gold is primarily contained in electrum as fine-grained particles. The particle size of the electrum grains varied from 1 micron (“µ”) x 1 µ up to 10 µ x 133 µ. One native gold grain was noted. The silver generally occurs at about the same grade as gold and the correlation between silver and gold is low at 0.24. Silver is not considered important because of the lower price for silver compared to gold and the lower metal recovery of silver.


Mining Methods

  • Truck & Shovel / Loader


Summary:

Mining at San Andrés is by conventional open pit methods. Historical production rates for the years 2009 to 2013 averaged approximately 13,000 t of ore and 10,000 t of waste produced daily with generally continuous mining 24 hours a day for 360 days per year.

The San Andrés Mine is anticipating a material expansion in ore throughput from approximately 5Mtpa to 7Mtpa. This expansion was justified by the improved incremental economics with modest capital investment.

Mine production utilizes conventional drill and blasting methods with excavation on 6m high benches.


Crushing and Grinding
Crusher / Mill TypeModelSizePowerQuantity
Jaw crusher 2

Summary:

Blasted material is loaded via shovels and excavators onto haul trucks and is hauled to one of two jaw crushers utilizing a contract haul fleet.

All of the ore is processed through a two stage crushing circuit and transported on conveyors before being stacked as the final product sized at 80% passing 2.5 inches. The crushing and conveying circuit is designed for a nominal capacity of 1,100 t/h, which is adequate for the expanded production rate if operating at approximately 74% overall utilisation rate. For the expansion, most of the capital investment is applied to improve the secondary screening and crushing plant in order to consistently achieve or exceed 74% utilisation factor.


Processing

  • Heap leach
  • Carbon in column (CIC)
  • Elution
  • Carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR)
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
  • Cyanide (reagent)

Source: Subscription required

Summary:

After the ore has been crushed it is treated with 2.5 to 4.0 kg/t of cement and 1.5 to 3.5 kg/t of lime before reaching the agglomerators where the ore is retained and mixed while adding an intermediate process solution to achieve the optimum moisture of 18%. The process solution contains up to 400 ppm cyanide solution.

The ore is stacked on the leach pad in 8 m lifts on previously leached ore that has been ripped and prepared. The ore is leached for an average of 120 days before the area is allowed to dry and prepared for the next lift. The solution used for leaching comes from the ADR plant after the cyanide concentration has been replenished.

Gold is recovered through the ADR plant, which has 12 carbon columns that can be configured in a two or three train configuration with a nominal capacity of 500 m³/h per train. The assay lab which processes both Mine grade control samples and process plant samples is located in the same complex as the ADR plant. The gold ........

Recoveries & Grades:

CommodityParameter2020201920182017201620152014
Gold Recovery Rate, %  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required76.596.88086
Gold Head Grade, g/t  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required0.420.390.450.480.48

Production:

CommodityProductUnits2021202020192018201720162015
Gold Equivalent koz  ......  Subscription required ^
Gold Metal in doré oz  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required
^ Guidance / Forecast.
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics202020192018201720162015
Total tonnes mined  ......  Subscription required8,944,455 t10,151,653 t11,676,853 t11,913,532 t10,528,156 t
Ore tonnes mined  ......  Subscription required5,178,049 t6,042,075 t6,693,329 t6,531,161 t6,202,143 t
Waste  ......  Subscription required3,766,406 t4,109,579 t4,983,524 t5,382,371 t4,326,013 t
Stripping / waste ratio  ......  Subscription required0.73 0.68 0.74 0.82 0.7
Tonnes processed  ......  Subscription required5,172,718 t6,065,192 t6,699,350 t6,459,139 t6,149,421 t
Daily processing capacity  ......  Subscription required20,000 t20,000 t20,000 t18,600 t
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Reserves at December 31, 2020:
Mineral Reserves have been estimated at a cut-off grade of 0.26 g/t for oxide material and 0.35 g/t for mixed material, with dilution of 7% and mining recovery of 93%.
For the Mineral Resource cut-off grade was 0.20 g/t for oxide material and 0.26 g/t for mixed material.

CategoryOreTypeTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Proven Oxide 19,668 kt Gold 0.5 g/t 314 koz
Proven Mixed 1,521 kt Gold 0.95 g/t 46 koz
Proven Total 21,189 kt Gold 0.53 g/t 360 koz
Probable Oxide 25,883 kt Gold 0.5 g/t 416 koz
Probable Mixed 2,097 kt Gold 0.88 g/t 60 koz
Probable Total 27,980 kt Gold 0.53 g/t 476 koz
Proven & Probable Oxide 45,551 kt Gold 0.5 g/t 730 koz
Proven & Probable Mixed 3,618 kt Gold 0.91 g/t 106 koz
Proven & Probable Total 49,169 kt Gold 0.53 g/t 836 koz
Measured Oxide 22,556 kt Gold 0.5 g/t 366 koz
Measured Mixed 2,300 kt Gold 0.84 g/t 62 koz
Measured Total 24,854 kt Gold 0.54 g/t 428 koz
Indicated Oxide 38,470 kt Gold 0.49 g/t 602 koz
Indicated Mixed 5,500 kt Gold 0.8 g/t 142 koz
Indicated Total 43,970 kt Gold 0.53 g/t 744 koz
Measured & Indicated Oxide 61,026 kt Gold 0.49 g/t 968 koz
Measured & Indicated Mixed 7,800 kt Gold 0.81 g/t 204 koz
Measured & Indicated Total 68,824 kt Gold 0.53 g/t 1,172 koz
Inferred Oxide 144 kt Gold 0.42 g/t 2 koz
Inferred Mixed 3,860 kt Gold 0.81 g/t 101 koz
Inferred Total 4,004 kt Gold 0.8 g/t 103 koz

Commodity Production Costs:

CommodityUnits2021202020192018201720162015
Cash costs Gold Equivalent USD  ......  Subscription required ^
Cash costs Gold USD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required 959 / oz 849 / oz 821 / oz 779 / oz
^ Guidance / Forecast.
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Financials:

Units202020192018201720162015
Capital expenditures M USD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required7.1   5.8   4.6   11.7  
Revenue M USD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required82.2   96.9   89.5   93.1  
Operating Income M USD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required
Pre-tax Income M USD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required-0.2   16.9   14.2  
After-tax Income M USD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required-1.4  
Subscription required - Subscription is required


Heavy Mobile Equipment:

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameEmailProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Apr 6, 2021
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Apr 6, 2021
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Staff:

EmployeesContractorsTotal WorkforceYear
Subscription required 2020
Subscription required 2019
Subscription required 2018
Subscription required 2017
Subscription required Subscription required Subscription required 2016
Subscription required Subscription required Subscription required 2015

Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
Annual Information Form 2018
Corporate Presentation 2018
Financial Review 2018
Management Discussion & Analysis 2018
Annual Information Form 2017
Financial Review 2017
Management Discussion & Analysis 2017
Annual Information Form 2016
Management Discussion & Analysis 2016
Annual Information Form 2015
Management Discussion & Analysis 2015
Technical Report 2014
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

News:

NewsDate
Aura Minerals Provides Further Update Regarding Operations in Honduras April 28, 2020
Aura Minerals Provides Update Regarding Operations in Honduras April 20, 2020
Aura Resumes Limited Operations at San Andres Gold Mine February 11, 2019
Aura Minerals Announces Suspension of Operations at San Andres December 10, 2018
Aura Minerals Announces Resumption of Operations at San Andres Mine October 30, 2018
Aura Minerals Announces Suspension of Operations in San Andres, Honduras October 22, 2018

Aerial view:

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