Altaley Mining Reports Pre-Production Result at Tahuehueto

Canada-based precious metal and base mineral producer Altaley Mining updated its pre-production results during mill commissioning at its Tahuehueto gold project in Durango. The company said that the project's recoveries and concentrate grades over the past three months continue to set new records.

Altaley said that the Tahuehueto project is operating one ball mill in a commissioning phase which is producing precious metals and lead and zinc concentrates. The company reported that pre-production will continue to generate revenue while the definitive production systems are completed. 

Crushing capabilities have been increasing since October 2022. Before that date, the company was working with a temporary crushing system that did not prove optimal feed sizing. However, since the commissioning of the current crushing system, the company’s comminution capacity has improved and is currently producing an average of 350t/d with the aim to reach 500t/d capacity once the company completes the installation of closed-circuit cyclones. The cyclones are expected to be completed before 1Q23 subject to a successful outcome of a forthcoming rights offering. 

Since Sept. 1, 2022, the Tahuehueto project has reported exceptional precious metal recoveries. During 4Q22, ores averaged 89.9 percent gold and 83.2 percent silver with a peak daily recovery of gold at 97.52 percent and silver at 92.3 percent. for base metals, the project registered recoveries of 76.7 percent of lead and 54.3 percent of zinc.

For Altaley Mining, the best month for recoveries and grades was December 2022 as it set new milestones. The company associates these prominent results with the mining of fresh and high-grade ores from underground mining. “Early pre-production was largely from stockpiled material and some of this was partially oxidized, which impacted the plant performance,” said Mark Struthers, CEO, Altaley Mining. In December, the project’s lead recoveries reported 84.2 percent lead grading 29.2 percent, gold 81.3 percent grading 55.7g/t and silver 73.9 percent grading 693.3g/t. Similarly, for zinc concentrates the project reported recoveries of 65.2 percent zinc grading 51.3 percent, gold 10.6 percent grading 5.96g/t and silver 10.8 percent grading 77.91g/t. 

“This gives us confidence in future performance. Some initial challenges in the lead circuit were resolved, so we are now producing zinc concentrates with grades above the minimum commercial specification. The precious metals grades in our lead concentrates are also especially pleasing with, for example, an average of 55.74g/t Au and 693.2g/t Ag in December,” Struthers commented. 

Altaley also conveyed that it entered into a debt settlement agreement with an arm’s length mining contractor to settle CA$1.17 million (US$879,746) owed to the contractor for the underground mining development work. The company said it will issue 735,186 common shares to the contractor at a deemed price of CA$1.6 (US$1.2). Altaley said that this agreement will extinguish and settle the debt.