Guanajuato Silver – New Equipment Optimization At 4 Primary Mines, 2 More Historic Mine Stockpiles Adding To Production, And Mexico As A Mining Jurisdiction
James Anderson, CEO of Guanajuato Silver (TSX.V:GSVR – OTCQX:GSVRF), joins me to provide a review a comprehensive operational update from their 4 producing silver-gold mines and 3 processing facilities in central Mexico, and some of the equipment the company has invested in and is installing to optimize future production. We also get into the political landscape in relation to mining in Mexico, and how James sees that evolving over time.
The Company produces silver and gold concentrates from the El Cubo Mine Complex, Valenciana Mines Complex, and the San Ignacio mine; all three mines are located within the state of Guanajuato, which has an established 480-year mining history. In addition, the Company produces silver, gold, lead, and zinc concentrates from the Topia mine in northwestern Durango.
At the Topia Mine, the commissioning of a new filter system for silver-gold-lead concentrates has been successfully completed. This new filter system is one of two that will be installed at the mine site; the second concentrator will be for silver-zinc concentrate production. Topia produces concentrates containing silver, gold, lead and zinc through a processing facility that comprises a 260-tonnes-per-day flotation plant; the new concentrate filters will contribute to helping the plant achieve, and potentially exceed, full production capacity, as well as potentially producing higher grade concentrates.
At the San Ignacio Mine, located approximately 20km from the Company's Cata Processing facility, a new ore sorter, which arrived on site in July, is rapidly approaching the commissioning phase. The NUCTECH MC2000NF Intelligent Mineral Sorting System provides high-tech sorting accuracy, large processing capacity, environmental friendliness, and high reliability through a system that utilizes X-ray and structured light imaging technology to intelligently identify and then separate high-grade silver and gold material. The ore sorter is expected to improve overall efficiencies at San Ignacio, raising the grade of transported material to the Cata mill. The San Ignacio mine accounted for approximately 15% of total silver-equivalent production during Q2, 2024.
Next we review the augmenting material at the Company's Cata processing facility in Guanajuato with ore from both the historic Horcon Mine project, located in the state of Jalisco, and from stockpiles at the Pinguico mine. This effectively means they are seeing production from 6 of their mines, even though only the 4 primary mines have active underground mining going on. We also discuss that in Q1 that there was a fair bit of material processed at their El Cubo mill from 3rd party sources, and while there was a pause on those contracts in Q2 and Q3, that they anticipate adding in more contracted 3rd-party material into the mill later in the year and moving forward.
Wrapping up, James discusses some of the nuances in Mexico, his outlook for it as a mining jurisdiction, the changes that may be coming to the global mining industry as it relates to open-pit mining, and why he believes they have an advantage in Guantajuato Silver with all underground mines, extra mill capacity, and communities that have embedded understanding and appreciation for mining as a key industry.
If you have any follow up questions for James or want more information on any of the assets please email me at Shad@kereport.com and we’ll get those addressed by management or in future interviews.
* In full disclosure, Shad has a position in Guanajuato Silver at the time of this recording.
