Name: Del Toro mine.

Location: The Del Toro silver mine is located in the municipality of Chalchihuites, within the Chalchihuites mining district, in the north-western part of the state of Zacatecas, Mexico.

Controlling Company: First Majestic Silver Corp.

Brief History: First Majestic started exploration activities on the Del Toro silver mine in 2004. In early 2011, based on positive exploration results and robust economic evaluations, First Majestic’s management decided to construct a mill and process plant for the mine. On November 20, 2013, the Del Toro mine’s new 1 000 t/d cyanidation circuit began initial production of silver doré bars.
Brief Description: The Del Toro silver mine comprises a development property, which includes the main San Juan and Perseverance mineral deposits under exploration, development and preparation for mining, as well as two new areas of focus – the Dolores and San Nicolás mineral deposits – that are being defined by drilling.

Geology/Mineralisation: Del Toro is located within a 15-km-long anticline on the western side of a regional contact zone, between a 7-km- × 1-km-long granodioritic intrusive stock and a sequence of Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. The sedimentary rocks sequence consists of Cretaceous calcareous rocks. These rocks are represented by a 500 m column of Cuesta del Cura Formation (Albian – Cenomanian age), which is the oldest outcropping sedimentary rock formation in the area, and comprise dark-gray recrystallised thin- to medium-grained limestone strata of 10 cm to 90 cm in thickness. The Cuesta del Cura rocks show occasional dissemination of lead/zinc sulphides and copper carbonate stains within the project area.

Del Toro mineralisation occurs as an assemblage of metasomatic and hydrothermal mineral deposits with high-grade silver content, including veins, replacement concentrations, stockworks and breccia zones.

The main minerals contained in these assemblages are pyrite, sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, argentite and other silver sulphosalts associated with calcite and quartz as gangue minerals.

The upper parts of the mineral deposits have been affected by oxidation and secondary enrichment processes, as the Cuerpo Uno of the San Juan mine, which comprise sulphosalts cerargyrite, pyrargyrite and stephanite; the carbonates cerussite, hydrozincite, hemimorphite, malachite and azurite; the sulphates anglesite and willemite; and the iron oxides hematite and limonite.

Resources: Total measured and indicated resources as at December 31, 2012, were 8.6-million tonnes grading 175 g/t silver, 0.1 g/t gold, 2.7% lead and 2.8% zinc. Inferred resources were 7.5-million tonnes grading 174 g/t silver, 0.1 g/t gold, 2.9% lead and 4.1% zinc.

Products: Silver.

Mining Method: Opencut and fill stoping, with or without in situ support (post) pillars, with delayed backfill.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Oxides and sulphides will be processed at Del Toro. The oxide ore will be subjected to cyanide leaching to produce doré; the sulphide ore will be subjected to two-stage differential flotation to produce a lead/silver concentrate and a zinc concentrate.

The cyanide-leach circuit will consist of a crushing and grinding circuit followed by thickening in a grind thickener and leaching of the thickened slurry in four agitated tanks, arranged in series. Leached slurry will pass to a leach thickener, followed by plate-and-frame filtering of the thickened underflow. Tailings from the filters will be dry stacked.

Pregnant solution recovered from the leach thickener and filters will be processed through a conventional Merrill-Crowe circuit, consisting of diatomaceous-earth pregnant-solution pressure filters, de-aeration towers, zinc-dust feeders, plate-and-frame precipitate filters, a precipitate dryer and induction furnaces. The product will be doré bullion.

The flotation circuit will consist of a crushing and grinding circuit, followed by sequential lead and zinc flotation. The rougher lead concentrate will be reground and subjected to two stages of cleaning.

Zinc rougher concentrate will not be reground, but will be subjected to two stages of cleaning. Lead and zinc concentrates will be separately thickened and then filtered using plate-and-frame filters.

Flotation tailings will be filtered by plate-and-frame filters and dry stacked.

Prospects: First Majestic’s new 1 000 t/d cyanidation circuit at the Del Toro mine began initial production of silver doré bars on November 20, 2013. The company is planning to accelerate the ramp-up of the cyanidation circuit to 2 000 t/d in early 2014. However, owing to persistently low silver prices, management has determined to delay further investment at Del Toro beyond what is necessary.

The installation of the first semiautogenous mill has been delayed and, as a result, total throughput at Del Toro is expected to reach 2 500 t/d in the first quarter of 2014. Management will determine when the expansion to 3 000 t/d or beyond will occur. With these changes in throughput and assuming the mill is maintained at 2 500 t/d throughout 2014, management estimates production of about 3.1-million ounces of silver or 3.3-million ounces of silver equivalent. The majority of these ounces will be in the form of silver doré bars, thereby reducing treatment costs, owing to less lead and zinc concentrate production, as was outlined in the earlier plant design detailed in the project’s feasibility study.

Contact Person: Investor relations, Todd Anthony

Contact Details:
First Majestic Silver Corp
Tel +1 604 688 3033
Fax +1 604 639 8873
Email info@firstmajestic.com
Website http://www.firstmajestic.com