Candelaria Mining Announces Drill Permit at its Pino Project 

Canada-based Candelaria Mining, announced it has received a permit to drill at its Pino’s gold project in Zacatecas, Mexico.

The company reported the initial phase 1 drilling program will compromise about 7,000 m, while the second phase will include resource expansion drilling at its most advanced Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA-) level La Paila project within the region. It expects to complete 14,000 to 15,000m of drilling during 2022.

Major mining projects are expected to begin production in 2022, after some were delayed due to lack of funding, permitting and effects of COVID-19. Additionally, companies like Candelaria Mining have announced their ambitious targets for 2022, which include drilling and construction work.

“We are pleased to start this infill program at our Pinos project. Drilling is expected to commence within a few days. It is one of three strands of work at Pinos currently being undertaken. The drilling will seek to validate recently updated structural interpretations of the distribution of higher-grade mineralization, together with some additional holes in other high-grade veins in different parts of the mineralized system. This will provide for greater production flexibility and opportunities for grade blending,” said Mike Struthers, CEO.

The company has 3,800ha of Pinos’ mining concessions, which include 17km of veins containing gold and silver. The project hosts 25,029oz of gold and 496,637oz of silver in the M&I categories and 60,671oz of gold and 811,082oz of silver in the Inferred category.

Ramón Pérez, President and Director of Candelaria Mining, told MBN the Pinos project is fully permitted and ready to go into production. The company has drilled out an initial resource and have filed a robust Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). In addition, Perez said the project has a great support from the local, municipal, state and federal governments.

“Zacatecas is a mining-friendly state and, more specifically, Pinos is an area where mining has always existed, so community engagement has been faster and easier. Around Pinos, the mining communities truly understand how the sector works and the benefits it brings to communities. Our ESG program has been very successful and we are constantly improving it to generate better results,” added Pérez.

On June 24, Candelaria reported it had closed a US$9 million medium term loan facility with Accendo Banco, which will be used for financing the construction of the Pinos project. In November, the company Empress Royalty announced it completed its first near-term cash producing investment with the NSR royalty on Candelaria’s Pinos project. Candelaria said that these investments will be used to start operations in the Pinos District.

Zacatecas is considered one of the most important mining states in Mexico. Last year, it produced 10.6 percent of the gold in the country, which positioned Zacatecas as the fifth gold-producing state. In the silver category, it obtained the first place with 33.4 percent of the national production. Regarding copper, the state ranked second with 6 percent of the total production, according to CAMIMEX. 

Candelaria Mining is a metals-focused mining and exploration company and has two advancing gold projects in Mexico: its construction-ready high-grade underground Pinos mine project in Zacatecas and the advanced-exploration stage Caballo Blanco project in Veracruz.