Pan American Keeps Betting on Its La Colorada Asset
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Pan American Keeps Betting on Its La Colorada Asset

Photo by:   Omid Roshan
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Karin Dilge By Karin Dilge | Journalist and Industry Analyst - Mon, 08/15/2022 - 15:58

Pan American Silver informed that its Mexican mine La Colorada, the largest mine of the Canadian company, produced 1.68Moz of silver during 2Q22, which represents a 52 percent increase in comparison to 2Q21.

The mining corporation also operates in Peru, Argentina and Bolivia. Nevertheless, its biggest mine in Mexico accounted for 34 percent of the company’s total silver production in the first half of the year. According to Pan American, the good performance was owed to the reestablishment of ventilation, which increased productivity and enabled access to high-grade zones.

Furthermore, the company sees the La Colorada mine as a long-term asset and said it would like to continue extracting minerals in a sustainable manner.

Recently, the company reported its mineral reserves up until June 30, 2022 and registered

514.9Moz of silver and 3.6Moz of gold in proven and probable resources. “Measured and indicated mineral resources (excluding proven and probable reserves) are estimated to total approximately 838.6 million ounces of silver and 8.1 million ounces of gold. In addition, inferred mineral resources total 507.7 million ounces of silver and 5.7 million ounces of gold,” added the company.

“We successfully replaced 11Moz of silver mineral reserves and 96,100oz of gold mineral reserves at our producing mines over the past 12 months. Most of our exploration drilling was focused on near-mine exploration at La Colorada, Huaron and Timmins and produced positive results. Most notably, 7.3Moz of silver mineral reserves were added at La Colorada, more than replacing the 6.7Moz mined,” said Christopher Emerson, Vice President of Business Development and Geology, Pan American.

La Colorada

The “La Colorada” mine is the company’s largest silver producing project and is located in Zacatecas. Zacatecas is known for being a mining-friendly state and one of the most important locations for the industry in Mexico. Last year, it produced 10.6 percent of the gold in the country, placing Zacatecas as the fifth gold-producing state. In the silver category, Zacatecas is the leader with 33.4 percent of Mexico´s production. For copper, the state ranked second with 6 percent of the total production, according to CAMIMEX.

Pan American Silver reported that the La Colorada complex produces oxide and sulfide ore, processed through separate plants. The total nominal plant capacity is 1,800t/d, with the current life of the mine plan projecting the processing of 1,400t/d of sulfide ore and 400t/d of oxide ore. Moreover, the oxide plant compromises a conventional cyanide leach circuit consisting of crushing, grinding, leaching, Merrill-Crowe zinc precipitation and on-site refining to produce precious metal ore. The sulfide plant has a conventional floatation circuit comprised of crushing, grinding and selective lead and zinc froth floatation to recover precious and base metals, lead to separate lead and zinc concentrates.

Photo by:   Omid Roshan

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