Cyprium Mining Corporation is pleased to announce the start of production at the Potosi silver mine located in the historic Santa Eulalia District, Chihuahua, Mexico.
Production will focus initially on the "Tunel" mineralized body, which lies on levels 1 to 4 of the mine in the area accessed by the recently rehabilitated Potosi No. 3 shaft.
Mr. Alain Lambert, Chairman and CEO of Cyprium commented: "We are very pleased that it took only six months and less than a million dollars to return the Potosi Mine to production. This nicely validates Cyprium's business plan of acquiring and inexpensively restoring past producing mines to generate cash flow for expanded development and exploration." Mr. Lambert added:
"We believe that the larger Santo Domingo mineralized body located at level 9, 10 and 11 of the mine – also known as the Main Silicate Body – has good exploitation potential and having started production of the Tunel body, evaluation and preparations for exploiting the Santo Domingo body will assume top priority."
The first phase of production will be to extract broken mineralized material left in stopes on levels 1 and 2 of the mine by past mining activities. Subject to receiving final explosives permits, the Company expects to begin blasting on level 4 by the end of July.
The Company is also evaluating other areas for blasting on level 2 and 3. Cyprium is currently extracting twenty tons per day on a test basis and expects to achieve an extraction volume of eighty tons per day by mid-August.
All mineralized material extracted from the mine will be sent to the Aldama flotation plant located 42 kilometers from the Potosi mine. The Aldama plant has a capacity of one-hundred metric tons per day and the Company has the exclusive right to use it under an agreement which expires in May 2019.
The lead and zinc concentrates produced at the plant will be shipped to Trafigura Mexico under the terms of a commercial agreement with Trafigura. The Company is responsible for the supervision of all metallurgic processes, including quantitative chemical analysis, assaying of samples, determining feed grades and the sale of concentrates.
The Santa Eulalia District
Santa Eulalia is a world class polymetallic mining district located in the central part of the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, approximately twenty-two kilometers east of the City of Chihuahua. Mineralization in the area was originally discovered during the Spanish colonial period in the 1500's, and recorded production has occurred over more than 300 years.
Santa Eulalia ranks as one of Mexico's primary silver and base metal producing districts with over 500 million ounces of silver and substantial amounts of lead and zinc mined. The Santa Eulalia district is a Carbonate Replacement Deposit (CRD) and is the largest of its type known in Mexico. Production and reserves for the district have been estimated to be about 50 million metric tons (3) with grades of 125-350 g/t Ag, 2-8% Pb and 3-12% Zn.
The Santa Eulalia district covers approximately forty-eight square kilometers and is divided into three areas, the West Camp, the Middle Camp and the East Camp. The Potosi silver mine is located in the West Camp, which has produced most of the district's ores with the Potosi silver mine being one of the two principal producers.
Based on the geology, past mining activity and the exploration work completed by the Company to date, the Company believes that the project warrants further exploration.
Widely spaced sampling on levels 3-4 in the area of the Potosi #3 shaft (Tunel body) and levels 6 and 9-11 in the area of the Potosi #1 shaft (Santo Domingo or Main Silicate body) has shown that mineralized material of interesting grades is exposed along the margins old stopes and adjacent areas. Work is continuing to evaluate the potential for defining resources throughout the mine.
Geological Setting, Deposit Type and Mineralization
Mineralization in the Santa Eulalia district is characterized by massive limestone replacement sulfides, dominantly pyrrhotite, sphalerite, galena and pyrite that occur as horizontal mantos and steep chimneys. These sulfide bodies occur along laterally continuous discrete structural zones that mainly trend in a north-south orientation, with mineralization forming preferentially in certain stratigraphic units. '
Past mining reached to over 850 meters depth below the surface on 23 levels. Production in the West Camp diminished gradually through the late 80's, despite the discovery of new mineralization, and the camp has been largely dormant since 1991. Currently the only significant production is from the East Camp.