Orvana says stockpiles to provide three more years of production
TSX-listed Orvana Minerals has announced the suspension of mining operations at Los Tojas, Bolivia, but the company is studying an oxide stockpile project at Don Mario, which could provide three years of production.
The miner explained on Friday that Los Tojas was uneconomic on an unitary cost-per-ounce basis, owing to higher-than-expected ore-grade operational mining dilution, with more narrow, erratic and discontinued mineralised structures.
CEO Juan Gavidia commented in a media statement that it was the “right decision to suspend operations to mitigate a higher unitary cost burden”, given the company’s focus on a near-term transition to the oxides stockpile project.
The oxides stockpile has a mineral resource of 2.18-million tonnes, at an average gold grade of 1.85 g/t, containing 386 950 oz of gold equivalent.
Orvana explained that the stockpile resource was estimated in the 2016 report on the assumption that the stockpile would be processed by flotation and would not be included in the carbon-in-leach circuit. However, during the past two financial years, the miner had been evaluating metallurgical alternatives to process the oxides stockpile, concluding that a sulphidisation circuit would maximise the value of the stockpile.
Subject to the ability to convert the estimated resources of the oxides stockpile into reserves, the oxides stockpile project could provide three full production years for Don Mario.
“Subject to a favourable outcome of the analysis of the feasibility of the oxides stockpile, we are committed to funding and building the oxides stockpile project, which is expected to commence in early financial year 2021, with 33 months of expected low-cost gold and copper production," said CEO Juan Gavidia.
The company also owns the El Valle mine, in Spain.
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