TSX-V-listed Sierra Madre Gold and Silver on Wednesday announced that it would buy the high-grade, past-producing underground La Guitarra silver/gold mine, in Mexico, from First Majestic Silver.
The fully permitted La Guitarra mine and 500 t/d mill would advance Sierra Madre’s goal towards becoming a midtier precious metals company, said president and CEO Alex Langer.
Sierra Madre COO Greg Liller and director of exploration and development Luis Saenz, as well as other members of the team operated the La Guitarra mine under prior ownership from 2006 to 2009.
"Based on my experience with running the La Guitarra mine and overseeing the district's first large-scale exploration programme, I have always believed La Guitarra is one of the largest undeveloped silver opportunities in Mexico,” said Liller.
He noted that the eastern portion of the district was host to large high-grade mines that were significant producers during the Spanish colonial period. This area has only seen limited modern drilling and exploration even though it is host to hundreds of old mines, prospects, workings and veins.
La Guitarra hosts historical measured and indicated resources of 701 000 t, grading 227 g/t silver and 1.22 g/t gold, for a total of 7.45-million gold-equivalent ounces. Historical inferred resources stand at about 1.04-million tonnes grading 240 g/t silver and 0.71 g/t gold, adding about 10.02-million ounces of gold-equivalent.
From 2012 to 2018, First Majestic completed about 128 671 m of drilling in 689 diamond drill holes.