Santana Gold Project Continues to Make Optimal Progress
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Santana Gold Project Continues to Make Optimal Progress

Photo by:   Minera Alamos
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Paloma Duran By Paloma Duran | Journalist and Industry Analyst - Fri, 07/23/2021 - 12:03

Minera Alamos has provided an update of its Santana gold mine in Sonora, which included the completion of the commissioning of its processing plant and the start of operations of its leaching and recovery systems.

The company announced that its commissioning work at the Santa mine is on schedule with its gold recovery plant tested. Minera Alamos explained that despite bad weather conditions that affected Sonora in the first half of July, the Santana project was not hindered and in fact proved to be extremely resistant to heavy rains.

The company explained there were some minor delays with the final electrical connections. Nevertheless,  all the necessary infrastructure for the plant has been installed and it is operating.. In addition, the company improved drainage areas that will benefit future operations.

The leach solution pumping and processing systems have also been tested during normal operating flow rates to calibrate the process instrumentation and test control systems. The company announced that it has identified some improvements it could implement. However, they will be tested during operations. In addition, overliner placement operations continue to progress well in parallel with ore placement.

The long-term crushing area preparation is nearing completion and reconciliation methods and procedures are being prepared from two benches mined at Nicho Norte. The company explained that development works continue in the Nicho Norte pit and that roads are being developed so that the project has sufficient infrastructure for operations.

“We have been able to gain valuable insights already from the project commissioning efforts that will allow us to make minor upgrades to improve future site operations in parallel with the project start-up and to optimize our mine planning models,” said Darren Koningen, CEO of Minera Alamos. Koningen said that mining activities in the Nicho Norte pit have progressed very well, noting that it now has enough working area to require a larger fleet of equipment and begin gold recovery this month.

Current planning is focused on the optimization of key parameters for full scale operations at the Santana project. This includes blast designs suitable for efficient fragmentation of mined material; crushing circuit optimization to provide throughput maximization for material from the Nicho Norte pit; leach pad stacking plans; open pit haulage optimization and construction of roads for future pit development phases; and leach plant testing and reagent preparation, reported MBN.

Photo by:   Minera Alamos

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