Sonoro Gold Shares Constructive Results From Sampling

The Canadian mining company Sonoro Gold shared its results from an underground sampling program carried out at its Cerro Caliche gold project in Sonora, Mexico. The program is part of the corporation’s plan to develop its proposed heap leach mining operation.

In May 2022, Sonoro Gold filed the updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of the Cerro Caliche Project, which contemplated an optimized mine plan for an open pit, heap leach mining operation with an initial two-year production rate of 8,000t/d, and an increase to 15,000t/d for the remaining mine life cycle.

Within the highlights of the updated PEA, Cerro Caliche has a US$53.5 million after-tax net present value, a 45.6 percent after-tax internal rate of return with US$26 million initial capital costs, as well as a 2.2 -year payback period and a seven-year life of mine.

The results of the underground sampling program provided relevant geological data from a 100m section situated along the south end of the Cabeza Blanca vein zone, as it enters the El Colorado mineralized zone. Moreover, these results and 7,200m of new drilling data will be included in an upcoming updated resource calculation.

Among the highlights of the sampling program is 2m averaging 7.863gr/t Au across the vein with 3.5m averaging 3.071g/t Au over five saw cuts along the vein segment.

“The positive results from the Cabeza Blanca South tunnel sampling program continue to highlight the intrinsic value of the project and underline the board’s ongoing commitment to develop the proposed heap leach mining operation at Cerro Caliche,” said John Darch, Chairman, Sonoro Gold.

The Cerro Caliche Project in Sonora is developing steadily following three years of operations. Sonoro Gold continues its transition from an exploration player to a developed producing company. The mining player aims to become a gold producer by 2023, said Kenneth MacLeod, CEO, Sonoro Gold.

To date, Sonoro has completed more than 41,800m of drilling at Cerro Caliche. The company noted that with new data provided by the company's drilling and from previous operators, the company now has accumulated 55km of geological data. Sonoro announced that new drilling results from the Phase IV program will be included in an updated resource estimate, scheduled to be presented in 4Q22. In addition, the company noted that the economic impact of the new estimate on the proposed heap leach mining operation will also be studied.

Over the past year and a half, several milestones have been completed at the Cerro Caliche Gold Project, said MacLeod. The achievements include the environmental impact studies, a preliminary mine plan, many kilometers of drilling, the PEA and an additional 7.3km of drilling to be added in August 2022. “Sonoro is making a transition from an exploration to a development company and by next year to a production company. We have had a very successful three-year operational period at Cerro Caliche,” he added.