Nueva Recuperada Silver District
Overview
The Nueva Recuperada project (the “Project”) is located within the Huachacolpa Mining District, Huancavelica, Peru, 479 km to the southeast of Lima. Nueva Recuperada is accessible by road from Lima. The Company’s assets include 230 mining concessions covering 20,472 hectares. Silver X acquired the Project through consolidation of various mining concessions from Buenaventura, Pan American Silver and Peruvian Metals.
Nueva Recuperada lies within an historic mining area, where mining has taken place since the 16th century. The Project has the complete support of the local communities. Community members have offered open-hearted assistance in developing any type of mining activities in the area. The plant has been in operation for 60 years. Historic production accounts for approximately 200 million ounces of silver equivalent within a 30 km radius. The project was placed on care and maintenance in 2014. Silver X commenced production in 2022 and declared commercial production in January 2023. Ramp up towards nameplate capacity of 720 tpd at the Nueva Recuperada processing plant is ongoing.
Exploration & Geology
The Nueva Recuperada property covers a large area within the Huachocolpa mining district containing Ag/Au/Pb/Zn/Cu epithermal/mesothermal metallogenetic veins and other deposit types mainly hosted in Cenozoic volcanic rocks. Silver-gold along with lead-zinc-copper mineralization is found in high, intermediate and low sulphidation veins, mantos, disseminations, porphyries and skarns.
The Company’s focus has been on assimilating historic data and field checking the various vein sectors and neighboring properties. To date, a total of 541 veins and splits have been identified on the property. In generative field work important discoveries have been made, including the economic potential of the veins in the San Antonio, Tangana, Cauca, Pucapunta, Maria Luz and Positivas sectors, along with the identification of disseminated, volcanic-hosted, epithermal and porphyry systems.
Silver X has separated the portfolio of vein systems on the Nueva Recuperada property into two main units for logistical and operational reasons: the Tangana Mining Unit in the north and the Plata Mining Unit in the south.
click to enlarge
Mining and Processing
Mining is performed by a mining contractor via overhand cut and fill configured in two steps i.e., mining first the vein containing the mineralized material and later the waste alongside the hanging wall and/or the footwall to create a minimum mining width. The waste mined is further used as fill material to set ground for mining the upper slice. In summary, a bottom-up mining sequence is undertaken following the veins strike. The method can be well adapted to the variations of the vein geometries.
The Nueva Recuperada plant can treat 720 tonnes per day and produces a zinc and a silver/lead/gold concentrate. The plant comprises crushing, grinding, flotation, thickening, filtration and reagent preparation and concentrate storage areas.
Resources
Notes:
The independent QP for the mineral resource estimate, as defined by NI 43‑101, is David Heyl, P.Geo. The effective date is October 31, 2022.
The estimate is reported for an underground, conventional cut and fill scenario.
The mineral resource estimate includes two resource models: 1) A block model defined for the core of the resource, estimated through the drilling and mine development; geo-statistical method is the reverse of the distance; 2) a polygonal model for some of the inferred resources based on veins outcrops and surface sampling.
The approximate cut-off grade applied to all resources is $60/t.
These Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves as they do not have demonstrated economic viability.
The Mineral Resource estimate follows CIM Definition Standards.
The QPs of this PEA are not aware of any known environmental, permitting, legal, title-related, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues that could materially affect the Mineral Resource estimate other than those disclosed in this NI 43-101 compliant Technical Report.
Tangana Mining Unit
Overview
Tangana is a concession spanning 966.01 hectares, characterized by polymetallic mineralization within intermediate sulfidation mesothermal and epithermal veins. The project is situated in the Huachocolpa district of the Huancavelica region in south-central Peru, approximately 145 km east of the prominent Pan American highway. Access to the proyect is possible via a paved road spanning 460 km from Pisco to Huayraccasa, followed by a 42 km of dirt road leading to the project site.
click to enlarge
The Tangana vein system comprises nine structures exhibiting polymetallic mineralization and oriented in a southeast-northwest direction. These structures are bounded by the Chonta and Huancavelica-Huachocolpa regional faults. The veins have subvertical dips and reach lengths of up to 1.3 km, with an average width of 0.68 meters.
Exploration & Geology
Tangana is a Project of polymetallic veins (Ag-Pb-Zn) with intermediate sulfidation and NW-SE orientations. It consists of exposed quartz-rhodochrosite-calcite veins with lengths ranging from 0.5 to 1.25 km and an average width of 0.80 m. These veins are hosted within volcanic breccia and andesitic domes of the Apacheta Formation. The system is crosscut by a N-S dike composed of biotitic diorite, which is believed to be associated with gold mineralization.
Tangana 1 (TN1), Tangana 2 (TN2) and Cauca veins are the three most significant structures and have been mapped at surface striking approximately southeast-northeast for 500 metres, 470 metres and 800 meters respectively. During the years 2021 and 2022, a systematic sampling campaign was conducted on these structures, resulting in the following results:
Currently, Tangana project is in the exploitation phase of its TN1 vein, with a projection to carry out an infill drilling campaign and extend its operations to increase the silver resources of the mine.
Plata Mining Unit
Overview
Plata (formerly Esperanza) was the last historical operation to close when the project was under BVN management. There is an abundance of mineralized veins in this mining unit and geological evidence for both intermediate and high-sulphidation alteration and mineralization. Historical drilling and recent surface mapping provide strong evidence for significant exploration upside.
Plata is a 3829-hectare concession package with 17 known mineralized veins at surface with widths ranging from 0.6 to 1.0 meters. The project is located 150 km east of Peru’s prominent Pan American highway in the Lircay district, Huancavelica region of south-central Peru and it is accessible by a paved road of 445 km from Pisco to Licapa, followed by a 34 km of dirt road to the project. It is located 24 km south of Julcani (Ag-Pb-Cu) and 30 km west of San Genaro (Ag-Pb-Zn).
Plata is located within the mesothermal-epithermal vein belt with polymetallic mineralization, which is related to the Chonta and Huachocolpa-Huancavelica fault systems. The vein orientations are E-W, typical of the anti-Andean trend, and they are intersected by Andean-oriented faults. The most important and extensively developed structures are Rico Antionio and Esperanza 2001, with lengths of 1.8 km and 3.6 km, respectively. Buenaventura (BNV) has conducted a total of 37,000 meters of underground development, reaching level 520 (4460 masl).
Exploration & Geology
Plata is an intermediate sulfidation mesothermal vein polymetallic system hosted in the volcanic rocks of the Apacheta formation. The system consists of 17 veins of quartz, quartz-calcite, quartz-barite, and barite with Ag-Pb-Zn mineralization in galena and sphalerite. The veins have an E-W orientation with subvertical dips and are confined between regional NW-SE structures of Andean trend.
Previous historic mining operations targeted and extracted approximately 1,824,676.10 metric tonnes of material with an average silver equivalent grade of 16.03 g/t through selective underground methods. The results of historical sampling and prior development work provide evidence for the existence of higher-grade mineralization at depths below 4460 masl, indicating further exploration potential.
Red Silver Mining Unit
Overview
Red Silver is a 970.82-hectare concession package with polymetallic mineralization in low sulfidation epithermal veins. The project is located 140 km east of Peru’s prominent Pan American highway in the Huachocolpa district, Huancavelica region of south-central Peru and it is accessible by a paved road of 460 km from Pisco to Huayraccasa, followed by a 37 km of dirt road to the project.
Red Silver is one of several epithermal vein systems characterized by silver (Ag), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) mineralization that exhibit a high preservation throughout the entire mining district.
Silver X’s exploration efforts will be directed towards expanding the resources and advancing the development of the vein based on mapping, sampling, and drilling activities. These efforts are aimed at building upon the historical mining works conducted by Buenaventura (BVN), which reported a production of 127,397 tonnes with grades of 433.27 g/t Ag, 0.4% Pb and 0.72% Zn over an average width of 0.94 meters.
Exploration & Geology
Red Silver exhibits over 28 km of veins with primary silver mineralization situated within the volcanic sequence of the Tantara Formation. It is classified as a low sulfidation system, and the mineralization occurs mainly in veins at temperatures of 250°C. The ore minerals found include freibergite, tetrahedrite, iron-rich sphalerite, galena, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite and marcasite. These minerals are accompanied with rhodochrosite, quartz and calcite as gangue minerals.
The vein system has a vertical extent of 410 meters below the surface, with outcrops reaching up to 5000 meters above sea level. The veins do not exhibit a single orientation and display numerous trends and the mineralization within the veins ranges from 15 to 20 ounces of silver.
Currently, Red Silver hosts an inferred resource of 1,908,725 tonnes with an average grade of 496.10 g/T Ag, 0.21% Pb, and 0.34% Zn. The company carried out a bulk sampling program in 2021 and has plans to conduct drilling activities on this silver-rich epithermal vein system in the second half of 2023.
Environmental & Social Impact Assessment Update
Silver X began updating the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (“ESIA”) for its Nueva Recuperada Project needed to expand operations. Nueva Recuperada currently operates within the medium size mining regime (350 tpd to 5,000 tpd) and is seeking to expand its permitted capacity to 2,500 tpd, including a processing facility at the Tangana premises for a capacity of 1,500 tpd and the current processing plant of Nueva Recuperada being expanded to 1,000 tpd. The ESIA is a key component of a comprehensive environmental and social permitting process covering both wholly-owned Tangana and Plata silver-polymetallic mining units. The assessment also covers the associated mining infrastructure and existing tailings facility for a total study area of 4,900 hectares. Key components of the updated ESIA include a further expansion of production capacity at the Company’s mineral processing plant to 2,500 tpd from the current upgraded 720 tpd and a new 8,000,000 m3 capacity tailings storage facility with a goal to expand silver production at Nueva Recuperada to 5 Moz silver (“Ag”) per year.
