Taguas mine life increased from 10 years to 27 yearsall,
Taguas mine life increased from 10 years to 27 years That is my main conclusion from the July 5, 2021 NR increasing the Taguas resource estimate to 2.6 million ounces. So what are the other implications?
Taguas would need a gravity circuit to recover high grade gold, and a flotation circuit capable to processing high grade sulphide mineralization. I assume that a 200 tpd underground mining operation at Silla Sur and 400 tpd underground mining operation at Cerro Campamento to recover the respective ore grades of 3.3 g/t and 5.5 g/t. Gold gravity recovery with knelson concentrators followed by sequential flotation for copper, lead, and zinc.
Tailings from the 600 tpd process plant assumed to be added to 12000 to 15000 tpd throughput from the Cerro Taguas mining operation. So how does a 600 tpd high grade underground mining operation affect the mine plan laid out in Table 22-8 on page 22-23 of the 2019 43-101 report?
That report estimated 410k oz of payable gold, 9,023k oz of payable silver. With the above assumptions of a 600 tpd high grade ore contribution from Silla Sur and Cerro Campamento, payable gold increases to 800k oz over 12 years of oxide production at Cerro Taguas and silver increases to 13.1 million ounces over 12 years.
- Average annual gold production increases from 41,000 ounces to 66,500 ounces.
- Average annual payable silver production increases from 900k ounces to 1,150k ounces.
- Copper production from Silla Sur and Cerro Campamento adds another 14 million pounds of copper produced over 10 years.
The net pre tax cash flow from Taguas was estimated at $132 million USD in the 2019 PEA. Using current metal prices of $1800 USD for gold, $26 USD for silver, and $4.25 USD for copper my estimate of the 12 year cumulative cash flow is $836 million USD after deducting production costs, capex, 12 percent Argentine export tax, and royalties.
The July 5 NR states that an updated 43-101 report will be published within 45 days. That report should be quite interesting and will hopefully include an updated mining plan and include capital costs for a 600 to 1000 tpd processing plant capable of simultaneous processing of Silla Sur and Cerro Campamento oxide and sulphide ore.
ganndolph
long and strong in ORV!