The Plant has been on recent care and maintenance and includes: primary, secondary, and tertiary crushing, milling, two 5' x 10' ball mills, and a full flotation circuit
Location of Farellon Mine and Mill Site. (Credit: Altiplano Metals Inc.)
Altiplano Metals has reached a Promissory Agreement (the “Agreement”) with SBX Chile to purchase a mill and processing facility to support the Farellon mine (the “Plant”). The Agreement, subject to final due legal diligence, involves the purchase of crushing and grinding equipment and a flotation plant with sufficient capacity to process 5,000 tonnes/month of production from the Company’s Farellon mine. The Plant has been on recent care and maintenance and includes: primary, secondary, and tertiary crushing, milling, two 5′ x 10′ ball mills, and a full flotation circuit.
In addition, the Company is pleased to announce the signing of a land agreement where the Plant will be located (the “Mill Site”). This Mill Site is approximately 15 kms from the Farellon mine and hosts power, water and transportation infrastructure to support the Plant. In preparation for the delivery of the Plant, the Company will begin the civil work required, which will involve land surveying, ground preparation, electrical and water connections, and pouring of cement footings.
The final agreement with SBX is expected to be finalized within 30 days, and on closing, the Plant will be demobilized and moved approximately 280 kms to the Mill Site. The move and assembly of the Plant is expected to be completed in Q4 2020, and once completed, the Company will be in a position to save on trucking costs, toll mill fees and produce a high grade copper concentrate available to be sold to the local and international markets.
CEO Alastair McIntyre comments “We are pleased to acquire the facility and also reach an agreement on the land lease nearby to Farellon. With the addition of the processing facility, Altiplano will benefit from further cost reductions while having better processing control and improved metal payables. In addition, we are pleased that we were able to source the equipment locally to support local companies and contractors. This was all made possible by the strength of our in country team and management.”
Farellon is a high-grade Iron-Oxide-Copper-Gold system with a 5,000 tonnes/month license and permit. Altiplano has been recovering Cu-Au mineralized material from an underground decline through a series of drifts. The Company has extracted approximately 2.24 million pounds of copper from mineralized copper material with an average copper grade of 1.80% (since Q1 2018) generating revenue of US$4,309,000 to date. Cost reductions and grade control at Farellon have generated seven consecutive quarters of positive cash flow. Altiplano completed an approximately 100 m extension of the Hugo decline in late April to access new mineralized copper-gold zones at the 382 m level. To date, APN has conducted 122 m of drifting along the NE-SW 382 m access level and the Company began extraction at the new 389 m level in June, where APN now operates a total of four working faces. In addition, drifting has begun to reach the 376 m level which will provide opportunity to access two more working faces bringing the total to six.
Source: Company Press Release