The Bolivar Mine comprises of 12 mining concessions and is a contiguous portion of the 15,217 hectare Bolívar Property land package within the municipality of Urique, in the Piedras Verdes mining district of Chihuahua State, Mexico. During 2012, the Company achieved its first full year of commercial production at the Piedras Verdes plant, which is located 6 kilometers from the Bolivar Mine that had an initial capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day. In September 2013, the Piedras Verdes plant further increased its daily throughput capacity to 2,000 tonnes per day by installing a new circuit. In 2018, an additional mill was added to help grind size optionality and improve recoveries at the plant. Production increased incrementally throughout 2019, surpassing the initial Company goal of 3,600 tonnes per day and finishing off the year with a throughput capacity of 4,200 tonnes per day. In 2020 Bolivar's througput capacity increased further to 5,000 tonnes per day and the Company completed a preliminary economic assessment in October 2020, which examined doubling production to 10,000 tonnes per day between 2024 to 2026. The Company is now conducting Pre-feasibilty Studies to further assess the economics of such an expansion.
The ore is treated using a flotation process in a copper circuit and is extracted from various copper skarn deposits which include the following:
- A copper skarn deposit, containing copper, silver and gold
Exploration
The Bolivar Property is situated within the Piedras Verdes Mining District, which is within the major north-northwest trending Sierra Madre Precious Metals Belt extending across the states of Chihuahua, Durango and Sonora in northwestern Mexico. In general, rocks in the area trend northwest and dip gently to the northeast. These rocks are also cut by several northwest and northeast-trending faults.
Skarn-type Cu-Zn-Ag-Au mineralization in the Bolivar area is structurally controlled and forms mineralized zones that are close to structures. Mineralized zones occupy pre-existing fault structures and extensional openings formed during mineralization.
The exploration program has the following goals:
- Brownfield programs within and close to existing mines to exploit near mine targets that can be converted into resources and reserves and brought into the existing mine plans within a shorter period of time
- Developing a pipeline of open pit and underground opportunities through a district scale study that incorporates various geological data layers, historical drill hole and mine data