Guanajuato Silver to Reactivate Mining Project

The Canada-based company Guanajuato Silver aims to restart operations at an abandoned gold-silver mine near the El Cubo project in Guanajuato after finding significant silver mineralization. The project is expected to boost the company’s silver production in a long-standing mining district. 

After carrying out a drilling program at the Mastranos IV tailing facility, located 3km from the El Cubo mill, the company reported it found high-grade silver mineralization. Guanajuato Silver drilled 134 holes of over 2m depth in an area of 43,000m². The majority of the holes presented grades higher than 250g/t of AgEq. To date, no resource estimate has been undertaken.

The Guanajuato School of Mines and the company did carry out preliminary tests, which have yielded positive results. The company stated that if metallurgical tests support economic feasibility, it will start processing as soon as possible. It plans to extract gold and silver using a gravity extraction circuit. “This will allow us to expand production at El Cubo without interfering with the regular flow of material through our processing facility. Guanajuato Silver’s ability to identify and rapidly act upon this opportunity is demonstrative of the technical quality of our Mexican operating team,” said James Anderson, CEO and Chairman, Guanajuato Silver. 

The discovery of new mineralization zones validates the company’s mission to reactivate past-producing silver and gold mines, which is also in line with the local government's commitment to reactivate mining in the state. In 2021, Guanajuato Silver signed a definitive purchase agreement with Endeavour Silver to acquire the El Cubo Complex, which has been mostly operational for the past 200 years. After 2003, production stopped as gold prices dropped below US$400/oz. 

Currently, Guanajuato Silver owns two mining projects, El Pinguico and El Cubo, both located within 11km of the city of Guanajuato. El Cubo is the only project that is currently in the production phase. This has boosted the company’s revenues, which it says helped it in its transition from an exploration-focused company to a full-fledged producing company. El Pinguico is still on schedule to restart its past production. In addition, Guanajuato Silver has over 7800ha of prospective mining concessions within the Guanajuato district. The company has a projected annual average production of 1.8M AgEq oz.