• Minera Alamos (MAI) has provided an update on its Santana Project operations
  • Plant commissioning is complete and on track for the start of gold recovery this month
  • Despite some minor delays, all required plant electrical infrastructure is now in place and operational
  • Minera is currently transferring excess rainwater to the barren pond to avoid unnecessary dilution of gold leach solutions
  • Minera Alamos Inc. (MAI) is up 1.67 per cent and is trading at C$0.61 at 1:46 pm ET

Minera Alamos Inc. (MAI) is pleased to provide an operational update for the Santana gold mine in Sonora, Mexico.

The commissioning work at the Santana mine continues to proceed according to schedule with the gold recovery plant thoroughly tested and operational despite the significant rainfall in southern Sonora during the first half of July.

Given the vulnerable nature of the site at the initial startup (large exposed leach pad areas and newly constructed excavations), Minera is pleased to report that the project proved extremely resilient to excessive rainfall.

The mine site saw in excess of an entire month of normal precipitation over a two-week period and often in very concentrated windows. Some minor delays occurred with items such as final electrical hookups but it can report that all required plant electrical infrastructure is now in place and operational.

In addition, improvements to areas of critical site drainage have been implemented which will be beneficial to future operations.

“Despite the challenging weather conditions since late June we have managed to complete the planned process plant commissioning and bring the leaching and recovery systems online at their design capacities,” stated Darren Koningen, CEO. 

In addition, mining activities to open up the Nicho Norte pit have advanced to a point where we now have sufficient working area to transition to the larger equipment fleet planned for the ramp-up to commercial operations,” added Koningen. 

Some commissioning highlights include leach solution pumping and processing systems which are all available and have been thoroughly tested during normal commercial operational flowrates in order to calibrate process instrumentation and test control systems and interlocks.

Some minor adjustments have been identified which offer the potential for improvements but these changes will be implemented during normal operations.

To date, mining (and ore placement) has taken advantage of the smaller haul trucks that were already at the site as part of the mine contractor’s (Trigusa) earlier site construction works. This has proven to be an efficient deployment of capital resources during startup.

In the second half of July as the pit, working area access has improved, Trigusa will begin transitioning to larger LOM haul trucks that are all currently at the site. As this occurs the company also transitions to LOM contract units rates for mining operations that were negotiated previously.

Minera also has excess rainwater contained in the pregnant pond and is currently being transferred to the barren pond to avoid unnecessary dilution of gold leach solutions.

Upon completion, reagents will be added to the process solutions to initiate the extraction of gold from the initial material placed on the heap leach pad and to test the overall leaching and recovery circuits as part of the normal start-up of operations.

Minera Alamos is a gold development company poised to join the ranks of gold producers in 2021. It has a portfolio of high-quality Mexican assets, including the 100 percent-owned Santana open-pit, a heap-leach development project in Sonora that is currently under construction, and which is expected to have its first gold production approximately mid-2021.

Minera Alamos Inc. (MAI) is up 1.67 per cent and is trading at C$0.61 at 1:46 pm ET.

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