PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior gold producer Minera Gold on Tuesday told shareholders that it was looking at potential third-party toll treatment arrangements at its San Santiago carbon-in-leach plant, in Peru.
The San Santiago processing plant, would mainly be used to treat ore from Minera’s own Torrecillas gold project, but the company noted that toll treatment of a third-party ore would be considered to fill any excess capacity in the circuit, particularly where grades exceeded 20 g/t gold.
Minera was in the midst of refurbishing and commissioning the San Santiago circuit, and had signed a turnkey contract for all civil and mechanical engineering work required at the processing plant.
Long-lead items have also been received, including the ball mill, primary crusher and cone crusher. The construction of the remaining components was ongoing, with installation expected to be completed before the end of June.
The Torrecillas project had a total mineral resource of 197 000 t, grading 16.1 g/t gold for 102 000 oz of gold. Minera had been undertaking trial mining at Torrecillas for the last three years, and the project was currently being ramped up towards commercial production.