Trevali sees future at old Santander mine

摘要

Late last year, Trevali Resources (ZINC-C, TREVF-O) purchased the past-producing Santander mine in Huaral province, Peru, and along with it, a 1,000-tonne-per-day mill, a 1,000-person camp complete with a school and hospital, a tailings pond containing more than 5 million tonnes of material hosting significant zinc and a 1.5-megawatt dedicated hydroelectric power plant. Since project have been turning out some high-grade silver-zinc-lead numbers and the company has put in place a two-phase production plan for Santander. The first stage is to restart the mill to process material from the tailings pond just a few hundred metres distant. Santander operated as a lead-silver mine for 20 years, directing the ore's zinc straight into the tailings facility. For another 15 years of operation, zinc was recovered but low metal prices dictated a 6 percent zinc cutoff and a coarse crush size led to poor recoveries, adding more zinc to the tailings. The result is a bulk-tonnage, low-cost, readily exploitable zinc resource.