Mexico mining projects move forward despite legal uncertainty
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Five mining companies with projects in the exploration and environmental assessment stages in Mexico have reported progress, despite the uncertainty caused by the freeze in new concessions since 2018, the lack of a clear legal framework and a potential ban on open-pit mining.
The start of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration on October 1 has generated expectations of a possible relaxation of sector policies, even though she belongs to Morena, the party of her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Higher optimism is perceived among miners whose projects are in the northern mining state of Sonora, where the Sonora Plan, an ambitious renewable energy project, is being implemented by the government.
The plan also includes expanding solar power generation and the lithium, copper, semiconductor and electromobility production chains, as governor Alfonso Durazo has strongly promoted mining.
A case in point is the US$15.5mn open-pit, heap leach gold mining operation Cerro Caliche of Canada’s Sonoro Gold, whose CEO Kenneth MacLeod said in an interview on Thursday with Investor TV on YouTube that he believes that “October 1 was the watershed date for Sonoro, when President Sheinbaum was inaugurated.”
“We’ve gone from a six-year deep freeze under the previous administration to a new regime of dialogue, consultation and an interest in moving forward with the mining companies, and also an interest in expanding foreign investment into the sector,” MacLeod added.
The CEO expects that 2025 will be “the banner year” for the company, which is waiting for approval of the environmental impact statement by ministry Semarnat for its flagship project.
“The catalyst for that will be the new government coming, giving you the go-ahead to the Semarnat to be able to go ahead and approve these mining projects that have been held up, and we’ve been held up for over two years”, MacLeod said.
MacLeod recalled that the company had gone through Cerro Caliches’s environmental review and believed that Sonoro should be looking at getting the permit and starting construction in the first half of 2025.
Tocvan Ventures provided exploration results from its Gran Pilar gold-silver project, located in what the Calgary-based company called the “mine-friendly Sonora” state.
Tocvan reported that surface soil and rock sampling has been ongoing across the Gran Pilar area, focusing on the northern and eastern extensions of the main zone, north hill, and 4-T trends. To date, technical staff have collected over 541 soil samples and 184 rock chip samples and counting.
“The results from the soil survey are simply incredible with samples exceeding the analysis overlimits two to three times; outlining the much larger potential for significant mineralization at Gran Pilar,” CEO Brodie Sutherland said in a statement. “The consistently high values across the area is telling of the overall potential.”
“It is fantastic to see several values in excess of 1g/t in the soil results and immediate follow-up has proven the values are directly related to mineralized structures tied to historic workings,” Sutherland added.
He also said that the entire area has never seen systematic and modern exploration because it is entirely new, and the company is beginning to outline the more extensive mineralized system that remains untested. “This is just one portion of the southern block of Gran Pilar, with even larger untested sections of the property extending to the north.”
Vancouver-based Endeavour Silver gave an update on the 2024 exploration and evaluation initiatives at its 100%-owned US$741mn Pitarrilla project in Durango state, and reported that engineering firms have been retained to start technical studies that will form the basis of a future economic study.
Since acquiring the Pitarrilla project in July 2022, Endeavour has re-logged the historic drill core to further understand the geology and mineralization controls of the deposit. “Priority has been focused on identifying and defining numerous high-grade feeder structures that are interpreted to be the source of the silver, lead and zinc sulfide mineralization, and that extend through the high-grade manto, originally identified by SSR Mining,” the miner said in a release.
Since August, Endeavour has completed nine diamond drill holes, six from the surface and three from underground drill stations. The company said the three holes from underground were targeted to intersect the manto and multiple veins, while the holes drilled from the surface were directed to intersect the Casas Blancas vein. “All holes successfully intersected the targeted mineralization, supporting management geological interpretation and the potential of underground bulk tonnage mining.”
Endeavour also announced that SGS Canada, SGS Bateman, JDS Energy & Mining, T Engineering, Stantec and SRK Consulting have been retained to begin preliminary work on the project. “This work will include the metallurgical testing program with a comprehensive review of historical test data, flowsheet evaluation, mine design, rock mechanics evaluation, backfill testing and design, hydrology investigations and tailing storage facility design,” the statement said.
The miner added that the work will build on SSR Mining’s extensive previous work, which will advance the project to the development stage and form the basis for an economic study by the end of 2025.
Kingsmen Resources also reported on its exploration program for its 100%-owned Las Coloradas project in the Parral mining district of the central Mexican silver belt, Chihuahua.
The company selected three principal target areas, the mine, Aguilar and Leona, on the Soledad structure for its planned diamond drill program.
According to the miner, the mine target includes the old Las Coloradas mine on the southeastern end of the Soledad structure/vein system and adjacent mineralized structures. The Leona target covers an area of old high-grade workings that are 530m long on the northwestern end of the Soledad II structure. The Aguilar target covers an area of old high-grade workings approximately 250m long on the northwestern end of the Soledad structure/vein system.
Other areas of interest have also been identified for drilling with ongoing follow-up work.
Finally, Toronto-based Torex Gold Resources announced assay results from the company’s ongoing drilling program at EPO in Guerrero state, adding that the results to date support Torex’s goal of expanding resources to the north of the deposit and upgrading inferred resources to indicated resources.
President and CEO Jody Kuzenko said in a statement that “the results from the first half of EPO’s 2024 exploration and drilling program build on the success of the drilling programs conducted over the last few years. Drilling has confirmed mineralization extends beyond defined resources to the north and also indicates high potential to convert inferred resources to indicated resources in both the south and the northeast of the deposit”.
She added, “we look forward to seeing the results from the second half of the 2024 program, which I expect will further indicate the potential to build on our resource inventory with the year-end mineral reserve and resource update and support the company’s target of sustaining annual gold equivalent production between 450,000oz and 500,000oz beyond 2030.”
