The Nueva Recuperada Project is a silver-polymetallic mining property in Central Peru. The property, owned by Silver X Mining, also hosts gold, lead, zinc and copper mineralisation.
In June 2022, the company announced filing a new technical report and updated resource estimate of the property.
This was followed by a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) of the property in April 2023. The report included a preliminary economic assessment on the Tangana Mining Unit (TMU) extension, the current main source of material for the mine’s processing plant.
Silver X commenced production at Nueva Recuperada in 2022. An upgraded Nueva Recuperada Plant was commissioned in April 2022, increasing processing capacity from 600 tonnes per day (tpd) to 720tpd.
Project Gallery
Assuming a 5.75Mt mining inventory including Measured, Indicated and Inferred resources and 1,500 tonnes per day capacity, the project achieved 12 years of life-of-mine (LOM).
The silver-polymetallic mine resumed operations in September 2023 after a short halt taken to increase efficiency and profitability via operational upgrades.
Nueva Recuperada Project Location and Accessibility
Nueva Recuperada is located in the Huachocolpa river basin, a sub-basin of the Lircay river, in the municipality of Huancavelica of Peru.
The project is subject to the jurisdiction of Huachocolpa District of the Huancavelica Province, Huancavelica Department.
The project is accessible by two routes from Lima, which is some 479km away from the property.
The first route is 540km long which passes through El Callao, Pisco, Rumichaca, A. Huayraccasa, and Huachocolpa. The second 566km-long route passes through El Callao, Huancayo, Lircay, and Huachocolpa.
Nueva Recuperada Project Exploration History
The Nueva Recuperada Property area had been mined since Pre-Columbian times.
In 1960, several mining operations opened and operated in the area. The original concentration plant was also built with a mine capacity at that time.
At one time, Compañia de Minas Buenaventura (BVN), the historical operator of the district, operated 36 mines in the area. Eventually, it started relinquishing concessions which were regarded unimportant.
BVN put Nueva Recuperada and other projects into care and maintenance in 2014.
Mines and Metals Trading (Peru) (MMTP) acquired Nueva Recuperada from BVN in 2017. Later, MMTP became a part of SilverX via a merger with OroX Mining.
Peruvian Metals (previously Duran Ventures) explored Huancavelica for more than a decade and discovered potentially economic veins. These veins were sold to Silver X Mining in 2020.
Silver X owns the project via wholly owned subsidiaries- Recuperada SAC, Corongo Exploraciones SAC, Minera Tangana SAC, San Antonio Mining SAC, and Tangana Mines Peru.
During the period February to November 2022, Nueva Recuperada produced 79,900tonnes.
Geology and Mineralisation
The basement of the Nueva Recuperada Project is made up of a thick sequence of Palaeozoic-Mesozoic sedimentary rocks including the Pucara limestone sequence.
The Cenozoic volcanic sequence is located above the above-mentioned units and includes rhyolitic tuffs, breccias, andesitic and rhyodacite lavas, and pyroclastic rocks of the Huachocolpa Group.
The four groups of sedimentary rocks are the Pucará, Chunumayo, Goyllarisquizga, and Chonta. The Chunumayo Group limestone of the mid-Jurassic age outcrops in the Positivas area.
The Goyllarisquizga Group includes quartzites, red shales, and lower Cretaceous sandstones below the Chulec unit.
The Chonta Group of mid-Cretaceous age includes shales, sandstones, and limestones.
The main mineralisation is hosted within the Apacheta y Caudalosa volcano-sedimentary units of the Huachocolpa Group. They include breccia, lava, tufts, dacitic-rhyolitic domes and lesser volcanic units like Sacsaquero, Castrovirreyna, Yahuarcocha,, and Caudalosa formations.
The mineralisation in the district consists of low to intermediate sulphidation, low epithermal to mesothermal veins, mesothermal iron and copper bearing skarns, high sulphidation epithermal disseminated bodies, hot springs deposits, and mesothermal porphyries.
The principal vein minerals include sphalerite, argentiferous galena, pyrite, minor chalcopyrite, tetrahedrite or freibergite, and native gold.
Gangue minerals consist of subhedral to euhedral quartz, calcite, rhodochrosite, barite, rhodonite, and chalcedony.
The high sulphidation epithermal disseminated mineralisation includes clays, alunite, pyrite, and silicification typified by chalcedony and opal veins. Hot spring deposits of travertine, silica, and gossan (sometimes) are also present in the mineralization.
The porphyry minerals include primary sericite, quartz veinlets, pyrite, chalcopyrite, and broad silicification mapped at the Terciopelo and Arcopunco project areas.
Nueva Recuperada Project Mineral Resource Estimate
As of October 2022, Nueva Recuperada project has a total (measured + indicated) mineral resource estimate of 3.61Mt containing 8.04Moz silver at a grading of 70.82g/t, 170.28kOz gold at a grading of 1.47g/t, 64.1kt lead at a grading of 1.78%, and 45.7kt zinc at a grading of 1.27%.
The total inferred mineral resource estimate is 11.89Mt containing 58.31Moz silver at a grading of 152.5g/t, 119kOz gold at a grading of 0.31g/t, 204.1kt lead at a grading of 1.72%, and 213.3kt zinc at a grading of 1.79%.
Nueva Recuperada Mining and Ore Processing
The minerals at the Nueva Recuperada Project are mined by the overhand cut and fill method which includes mining the vein with the mineralized material and then, creating a minimum mining width by depositing the waste alongside the hanging wall or footwall.
The mined waste is used as fill material for mining the upper slice thus, setting the ground.
The mined mineralised material will be brought to the surface via dumpers through the Tangana mine portal and connected to the Cauca, Morlupo, and Tangana veins.
The processing of ore will be done via a processing plant at a processing rate of 1,500 tonnes per day (t/d). The ore undergoes traditional primary and secondary crushing, primary grinding in the rod mill, and grinding in the secondary ball mill.
The grinded material will enter bulk flotation consisting of lead, copper, silver, gold, and zinc flotations and will be thickened and filtered in the concentrate thickening and filtration circuit.
To recover coarse gold from the cyclone underflow, a gravity concentrator will be used. The coarse gold will be cleaned on a shaking table. This coarse gold will be sold to a refinery operated by a third party.
Three concentrates will be produced by the gravity concentrator: a lead-silver concentrate with the estimated assay of 55% lead and 51 to 99oz/t silver, a zinc concentrate with estimated 52% zinc assay, and a coarse gold concentrate.
The tailings will be thickened and filtered and then, stored in a subaerial tailings storage facility or as a backfill underground.
To reduce water usage, the process water will be reused and recycled.
Power Supply
The power required for the processing plant is approximately 3MW and there are different power lines in the area. The most important is located 3km south of the Tangana Mine.
The power line transfers 22KVA up-valley from the Lircay Ingenio hydroelectric plant. The plant is owned by ElectroCentro, managed by Conenhua, and powered by Rio Opamayo.
The line connects the national grid at Cascabamba near Huanavelica from the plant.
Contractor Involved
LOM Consultants, a consultancy provider to mining and financial companies, was selected by Silver X to prepare the PEA for the project.