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United States
Pinto Valley Mine

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 Location:
103 km E from Phoenix, Arizona, United States

  Address:
PO Box 100 2911 N Forest Service Rd 287
Miami
Arizona, United States
85539
Phone928-473-6200
Fax928-473-6387
WebsiteWeb
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  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Costs & Financials
  • Fleet
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

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Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeOpen Pit
Commodities
  • Copper
  • Molybdenum
  • Silver
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Processing
  • Flotation
  • ROM/dump leach
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
Mine Life13 years (as of Jan 1, 2016)
Latest NewsCapstone Beats 2020 Production and Cost Guidance     February 24, 2021


Owners & OPERATOR

Source: p. 6
CompanyInterestOwnership
Capstone Mining Corp. 100 % Indirect
Pinto Valley Mining Corp. (operator) 100 % Direct

Deposit Type

  • Porphyry

Source: Source p.24

Summary:

The primary sulphide minerals encountered at the Pinto Valley Mine are chiefly pyrite and chalcopyrite with minor amounts of molybdenite. Gold and silver are recovered as by-products. Sphalerite and galena occur locally in very small amounts. Alteration of silicate minerals of the host rocks to other groups of minerals due to the presence of hydrothermal fluids associated with the Cu-Mo-bearing intrusive rocks include potassic, argillic, sericitic, and propylitic alteration suites.

Sulphide minerals generally occur in veins and microfractures and less abundantly as disseminated grains, predominantly in biotite sites. The ore zone grades outward into a pyritic zone with higher total sulphide content. Molybdenum distribution generally reflects copper distribution, with higher molybdenum values usually found in the higher grade copper zones. Oxide mineralization and a supergene enrichment blanket was developed at the Pinto Valley Mine, but these areas have since been mined.

Sulphide deposition at Pinto Valley is controlled to some extent by the host rock. The sulphide content decreases in Precambrian aplite intrusions. Aplite usually contains less than 0.25% copper, whereas adjacent Quartz Monzonite may have as much as 0.6% copper. The deficiency of copper in aplite is probably due to the absence of biotite, which makes up about 7% of Quartz Monzonite. Disseminated chalcopyrite shows an affinity for biotite, where it is disseminated through the biotite or partially replacing it. Additional chalcopyrite is also present in veins cutting both rock types.


Mining Methods

  • Truck & Shovel / Loader

Source: p.18

Summary:

Pinto Valley copper mine is an open-pit mine with conventional processing facilities and an SX/EW plant for low-grade copper extraction. The Pinto Valley Mine, which restarted in December 2012, uses a conventional drill and blast, and truck and shovel fleet. The pit is mined in 14 m benches with a double bench configuration in deeper zones.


Crushing and Grinding
Source: Source p.157-158
Crusher / Mill TypeModelSizePowerQuantity
Gyratory crusher 60" x 89" 1
Cone crusher Metso Nordberg 7' 9
Ball mill Allis-Chalmers 18' x 21' 4000 HP 6
Regrind 11' x 15' 2

Summary:

ROM ore is delivered by haul truck to a Fuller Traylor™ 60 inch × 89 inch gyratory primary crusher. The trucks discharge directly into the crusher, which is set in a dump pocket. The crushed ore is withdrawn from a surge pocket under the crusher by an apron feeder, which discharges onto the primary conveyor. The primary conveyor transports the primary crushed ore to the coarse ore stockpile, which has a nominal live capacity of 30,000 tons. Based on digital size analysis of the primary crusher discharge, the P80 of the primary crushed ore is approximately 3.5 inches. The fine product distribution is attributed to ore fragmentation and mine blasting practices. The discharge product averages 66% -2 inch and 45% -1 inch.The amount of fines in the feed has a significant influence on the production capacity of the fine-crushing facility.

The coarse ore is reclaimed from the coarse ore stockpile bysix apron feeders, which feed three coarse ore reclaim belts. Each coarse ore reclaim belt discharges onto a 7ft × 16ft Simplicity™ double-deck vibrating screen. Each screen oversize feeds a secondary 7ft Nordberg™ standard cone crusher. Screen undersize from the secondary screens is sent to the FOB, with a nominal live capacity of 44,000tons.

The secondary crushers operate in open circuit. Crusher product from all three secondary crushers is forwarded via a common conveyor system to the tertiary crusher feed bin. Ore is withdrawn from the tertiary crusher feed bin by six feeders and delivered directly to six 8ft × 20ft Simplicity™ double-deck vibrating screens. The screen undersize from the tertiary screens is sent via a common conveyor system to the Fine Ore Bin (FOB). The screen oversize is crushed by six 7ft Nordberg™ tertiary shorthead cone crushers. The product from the six shorthead crushers is added to the secondary crusher product on the common conveyor system to feed the tertiary feed bin, so that tertiary crushing is in closed circuit. At the current plant throughput, the P80 of the fine-crushing plant is about 11 mm.

Grinding
Fine ore is reclaimed from the FOB and fed directly to six 18ft × 21 ft, 4,000hp Allis-Chalmers™ overflow ball mills. Each ball mill is an independent circuit consisting of discharge sump, pump, and cyclone cluster. Water is added to the ball mill feed to achieve the desired percent solids content for grinding.Additional water is required at the ball milldischarge sump to maintainthe optimal operation of the cyclones. Each circuit is equipped with three 33-inch inclined cyclones. Cyclone overflow slurry gravity feeds the rougher flotation banks, while the underflow discharges back to the ball mill feed sump. The ball mills operate in closed circuit with the cyclones, with a circulating load estimated at 300%. Xanthate, dithiophosphate, diesel, and lime are added to the grinding circuit to prepare the ore in the slurry for flotation.

Regrind
The rougher concentrate is delivered to the regrind ball mill circuit. Rougher concentrate is combined with the regrind ball mill discharge and pumped to the closed-circuit cyclones. The target product for regrind cyclone overflow is P80 of 50 µm.


Processing

  • Flotation
  • ROM/dump leach
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning

Flow Sheet: Source

Summary:

The processing facility consists of three crushing stages, ball mills, copper flotation stages, a molybdenum flotation circuit, and associated thickeners for concentrates and tailings. Two previous tailings dams have been rehabilitated and two tailings dams are currently operational. Pinto Valley also has an SX/EW facility that processes pregnant leach solution from low copper grade material that is leached. The SX/EW accounts for less than 5% of production.

Flotation
The flotation circuit operates as a staged process designed for the recovery of copper and molybdenum to individual concentrates. The primary focus of the rougher flotation circuit is to optimize recovery of the primary sulfide minerals from the gangue into a reduced mass for economic downstream processing. Cleaner flotation delivers economic concentrate grades for marketing while maintaining high recoveries.The flotation reagents used include Flomin™ C-3430 (Xanthate), C-2420 (dithiophosphate), and F-171 (frother). Some of the flotation reagents have been added to the grinding circuit for slurry conditioning, with addition rates augmented in the flotation circuit where required.Regrinding of the rougher concentrate is required to provide the further mineral liberation to allow high concentrate grades and recoveries from the cleaners. The molybdenum in the PVM ore is recovered to the bulk cleaner concentrate with the copper. The molybdenum flotation circuit provides the separation of the copper and molybdenum into respective concentrates for marketing.

Rougher Flotation
The rougher flotation circuit consists of sixty-five 1,000 ft3Wemco™ cells configured in three trains, with cyclone overflow from two ball mills feeding each train. Frother is added to the head of the rougher flotation cells, with other reagents (that were added at grinding) added as required. The rougher section is operated in open circuit, with the rougher tailings going directly to the final tailings.

Cleaner Flotation
The cleaner circuit consists of four 8 ft diameter × 40 ft tall column flotation cells operated inparallel. The column cell concentrate, the final copper-molybdenum bulk concentrate, contains 27%–29% Cu and 0.35%–0.7% Mo. The column cell tails are sent to the cleaner scavenger flotation bank. The cleaner Pinto Valley Mine Life Extension Study, February 2016Page | 159scavenger bank comprises fifteen 300 ft3Wemco™ flotation cells. The concentrate from the first five cells is recirculated to the column cells. The concentrate from cells 6 to 15 is recirculated to the head of the cleaner scavenger bank. The tails of the cleaner scavenger bank are sent to final tailings.

Molybdenum Plant
The copper-molybdenum concentrate from the cleaner columns is thickened before being sent to the molybdenum plant. The plant comprises four banks of Agitair™ rougher cells of six 50 ft 3 cells each and three stages of cleaning using column cells. Sodium hydrosulfide is added to the slurry to provide depression of copper and iron sulfides. Fuel oil is added as a molybdenum promoter.

SX-EW
The PVM SX-EW plant was built and commissioned in 1981 to process solutions from the leach grade material placed on the leach dumps north of the pit. Through 1998, approximately 450 M tonnes of 0.13% T Cu material had been placed on the leach, resulting in production of 10 to 15 M lbs of cathode copper per year in the early 2000s. Over the last few years, the SX-EW has produced in the range of 5 to 8 M lbs of cathode per year due to the declining residual copper inventory in the leach piles. The PV3 plan utilizes the leach area and pregnant solution pond as waste rock storage, resulting in leaching operations being discontinued at the end of 2018.

Recoveries & Grades:

CommodityParameter201920182017201620152014
Copper Recovery Rate, % 85.184.689.286.787.488.9
Copper Head Grade, % 0.330.320.320.370.380.41
Copper Concentrate Grade, % 26.32628.228.528.629.6
Molybdenum Head Grade, % 0.010.010.010.010.01

Production:

CommodityProductUnits201920182017201620152014
Copper Payable metal M lbs 114115122
Copper Metal in concentrate M lbs 118119126147133144
Copper Concentrate dmt 196,560201,747196,583234,702203,966211,709
Molybdenum Concentrate dmt 7514864174184344
Molybdenum Metal in concentrate M lbs 0.20.10.20.20.2
Silver Metal in concentrate koz 324316377290286
Gold Metal in concentrate oz 1,7173,6871,9441,002923

Operational Metrics:

Metrics201920182017201620152014
Total tonnes mined 48,989 kt46,977 kt46,770 kt42,942 kt34,603 kt21,863 kt
Ore tonnes mined 18,888 kt19,290 kt20,605 kt23,435 kt23,139 kt20,931 kt
Waste 30,101 kt27,687 kt26,165 kt19,507 kt11,464 kt932 kt
Tonnes milled 18,665 kt19,246 kt19,655 kt20,565 kt17,730 kt17,231 kt
Daily milling rate 51,137 t52,728 t53,849 t56,189 t48,576 t47,209 t

Reserves at December 31, 2018:

CategoryTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Proven 255 Mt Copper 0.33 % 0.84 Mt
Proven 255 Mt Molybdenum 0.006 % 0.016 Mt
Probable 153 Mt Copper 0.28 % 0.43 Mt
Probable 153 Mt Molybdenum 0.006 % 0.009 Mt
Proven & Probable 408 Mt Copper 0.31 % 1.27 Mt
Proven & Probable 408 Mt Molybdenum 0.006 % 0.025 Mt
Measured 571 Mt Copper 0.33 % 1.88 Mt
Measured 571 Mt Molybdenum 0.006 % 0.034 Mt
Indicated 759 Mt Copper 0.27 % 2.07 Mt
Indicated 759 Mt Molybdenum 0.005 % 0.039 Mt
Measured & Indicated 1,330 Mt Copper 0.3 % 3.95 Mt
Measured & Indicated 1,330 Mt Molybdenum 0.005 % 0.073 Mt
Inferred 146 Mt Copper 0.24 % 0.34 Mt
Inferred 146 Mt Molybdenum 0.005 % 0.008 Mt

Commodity Production Costs:

CommodityUnits2019201820172016201520142013
Credits (by-product) Copper USD -0.09 / lb -0.06 / lb -0.08 / lb -0.06 / lb -0.05 / lb -0.06 / lb -0.05 / lb
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Copper USD 2.48 / lb† 2.7 / lb† 2.31 / lb† 1.94 / lb† 2.26 / lb†
C1 cash costs Copper USD 2.05 / lb† 2.16 / lb† 1.95 / lb† 1.61 / lb† 1.97 / lb† 2.03 / lb† 2.26 / lb†
All-in costs Copper USD 2.34 / lb† 1.95 / lb† 2.68 / lb†
† Net of By-Product.

Operating Costs:

Units20192018
Total operating costs ($/t milled) USD 1010.2

Financials:

Units2019201820172016201520142013
Capital expenditures M USD 55.9  60.9  48  22.6   68.3   40.1  
Revenue M USD 300.31  294.71  322.03  302.54   260.56   377.97   86.3  
Operating Income M USD 8.01  35.3  64.6  45.3   -21.82   78.9   5.45  
After-tax Income M USD 5.25  16  55.3  36.5   -6.29   51.6   3.22  
EBIT M USD 3.48  32.8  60.6  42.4   -26.24   73.3   4.47  


Heavy Mobile Equipment as of January 18, 2016:
Source: Source p.3
HME TypeModelQuantityStatus
Drill 3 Existing
Loader Caterpillar 994 2 Existing
Shovel (hydraulic) 2 Existing
Truck (haul) Caterpillar 789 18 Existing
Truck (haul) Caterpillar 789 2 Proposed

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
Chief Geologist Klaus Triebel LinkedIn Feb 26, 2021
General Manager Mike Wickersham LinkedIn Feb 26, 2021
Maintenance Planner Larry Kotopoulous LinkedIn Feb 26, 2021
Maintenance Superintendent Chance Fuller LinkedIn Feb 26, 2021
Metallurgical Superintendent Umut Erol LinkedIn Feb 26, 2021
Mine Manager Rodrigo Huerta LinkedIn Feb 26, 2021
Mine Operations Superintendent Tucker Jensen LinkedIn Feb 26, 2021
Mine Superintendent Mike Buck LinkedIn Feb 26, 2021
Mining Manager Clay Craig LinkedIn Feb 26, 2021
Operations Support Manager Colleen Roche LinkedIn Feb 26, 2021
Operations Support Superintendent Dennis Palmer LinkedIn Feb 26, 2021
Process Manager Bob Dickey LinkedIn Feb 26, 2021

Staff:

Total WorkforceYear
638 2017
607 2016

Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
Corporate Presentation 2021
Annual Information Form 2019
Management Discussion & Analysis 2019
Press Release 2019
Press Release 2019
Annual Information Form 2018
Management Discussion & Analysis 2018
Annual Information Form 2017
Management Discussion & Analysis 2017
Press Release 2017
Press Release 2017
Annual Information Form 2016
Management Discussion & Analysis 2016
Pre-Feasibility Study Report 2016
Press Release 2016
Annual Information Form 2015
Management Discussion & Analysis 2015
Annual Information Form 2014
Management Discussion & Analysis 2014
Pre-Feasibility Study Report 2014

News:

NewsDate
Capstone Beats 2020 Production and Cost Guidance February 24, 2021
Capstone Mining Reports Restart of Operations at Pinto Valley Mine June 24, 2019
Capstone Mining Reports 2018 Financial Results February 12, 2019

Aerial view:

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