RE:RE:RE:Who are these peopleAlf Tanner,
To answer your questions,
San Andres provides about half the gold production and half the quarterly profit at the present time. San Andres is very low cost and has a strip ratio under of 0.72, so it is economic even though it is low grade. The cemetary is a 400 meter by 500 meter area at the south end of the planned open pit. The following graphic shows the San Andres mine plan which runs through 2023. The Cemetary area was scheduled to produce 13.209 million tonnes of ore grading 0.55 g/t. If they cannot mine there, then that knocks a year off the mine plan. which is
not the end of the World.
Assuming Aranzazu comes back on line that would add a third profitable mine as long as copper stays above $2.75 USD. I haven't gone through the new 43-101 report on that mine, so expect a post on that this weekend with an updated financial model.
Following completion of mining activities at San Andres, closure costs run about $5 million per year for 3 years. So if they can find new areas to mine, then perhaps the life of mine can be extended. This is a heap leach mine where they are mining the surface oxide and mixed layers which are amenable to recovery by heap leach methods.
There is a sulfide ore body underneath the mixed layer, but I don't know if that has economic grades. If so there could be a second life for this mine. The San Andres mine has been Aura Minerals cash cow, and key in helping the company survive.
