TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – After the successful three-month ramp-up of Canadian precious metals producer SilverCrest Mines’ new 3 000 t/d mill and counter current decantation Merrill Crowe recovery facilities at its flagship Santa Elena mine, in Sonora state, Mexico, the company on Monday declared commissioning complete.

The mine, which was currently transitioning from an openpit heap leach operation to a conventional 3 000 t/d conventional mill facility and underground operation, achieved all commissioning objectives on schedule and within budget.

"The announcement of commissioning completion for the new Santa Elena mill and facilities is another milestone achieved as SilverCrest continues systematic and responsible growth. Our dedicated construction, commissioning and operating teams should be congratulated on their continued efforts toward achieving targets under strict schedules and cash control protocols.

“We will continue to adjust and optimise all the components of the facilities in efforts to achieve throughput tonnages at or above the nameplate capacity of 3 000 t/d. Our near-term focus now turns to achieving further milestones, including underground stope production in August and free cash flow in the third quarter,” president and COO Eric Fier said.

For 30 continuous days through to early August, the mill throughput ranged between 1 485 t/d and 3 144 t/d and achieved an average of 2 524 t/d, or 84% of the 3 000 t/d nameplate capacity.

In July, SilverCrest produced 1 516 oz of gold and 81 818 oz of silver (excluding residual leached ounces from pad production), which exceeded budgeted output of 1 255 oz of gold and 74 325 oz of silver. Start-up recoveries in July were 82% for gold and 65% for silver, compared with budgeted start-up recoveries of 83% and 62% respectively.

As planned, the mill feed during the commissioning period came from the leach pad reserve. From the third quarter, the company expected to blend higher-grade underground ore into the mix. About 69 000 t of pad ore that was milled in July, graded 0.84 g/t gold and 56.8 g/t silver, which were about 33% higher for gold and 58% higher for silver than the budgeted grades of 0.63 g/t gold and 36 g/t silver.

Underground stope production, scheduled for this month, would be the next milestone in the transition plan at Santa Elena. This initial stope would be mined using standard long-hole stoping methods. As of July 31, about 32 225 t of underground development ore had been stockpiled for mill processing in the third quarter. The average stockpile grade was 1.63 g/t of gold and 118.91 g/t silver, which was consistent with current reserve models.

Santa Elena is located 150 km north-east of Hermosillo, near Banamichi. The mine is a high‐grade, epithermal silver and gold producer, with an estimated life-of-mine of eight years and operating cash costs of $11/oz of silver equivalent (55:1 silver to gold ratio) for the openpit heap leach and underground mine.

SilverCrest expects the new mill to, on average, recover 1.5-million ounces of silver and 32 800 oz of gold a year with the current reserve.

Exploration programmes continue to make new discoveries at Santa Elena and SilverCrest had also rapidly advanced the definition of a large polymetallic deposit at the La Joya property in Durango state, Mexico.

SilverCrest’s TSX-listed stock on Monday trended higher, closing up 1.77% at C$2.30 apiece.