(Luca, 25.Jul.2024) — Luca Mining Corp. has completed construction of its new, 100% owned Tahuehueto gold mine located in Durango State, Mexico.
Tahuehueto is a fully permitted underground operation with a 1,000 tonne per day (tpd) nameplate processing capacity. The mine was completed within budget and has been successfully producing on a pre-production basis for several months. Processing rates will now start to ramp up to commercial levels and this is expected to be achieved by the end of September. Commercial run-rate levels are considered to be an average of approximately 800 tpd or 25,000 tonnes of ore per month. Tahuehueto is a large property (121 square kilometres) that hosts an extensive epithermal gold vein system with less than 10% of the prospective ground explored so far. Regionally, Tahuehueto is within a prolific and historic mining region including the famous San Dimas gold mine. San Dimas has a similar style of mineralization to Tahuehueto and has produced over 11 million ounces of gold to date.
Mr. Dan Barnholden, CEO, commented, “We are extremely pleased with our progress at the Tahuehueto Gold Mine. Processing rates are currently averaging 450 tpd and we expect to steadily increase over the coming weeks to reach commercial production in September 2024. Tahuehueto is set to become the second cornerstone asset at Luca. We are ultimately targeting at least 50,000 oz Au Eq* annual production from this mine. We are also excited about encountering new high-grade gold zones with significant mineable widths, as recently announced, through our normal course development work. We expect to start exploring these zones from underground in the upcoming months. This is a tremendous achievement, and it reinforces the strength of our team, which is underpinned by the high geological prospectivity of our asset and the favorable operating environment in Mexico.”
Tahuehueto Update
The company has successfully completed the installation of a third filter press at Tahuehueto. The company utilizes dry stack tailings which has many advantages over traditional methods including significant reduction of water usage, materially reduced environmental risk, non-hazardous and safe storage of tailings cakes, and faster and more efficient reclamation in the future. This crucial enhancement enables the company to increase its average production to commercial levels of 800 tpd (approximately 25,000 tonnes per month) and beyond.
In addition to this increase in production capacity, the company is actively continuing its underground development efforts. Resource drilling from underground is expected to commence in the coming weeks. The focus will be on new zones with significant mining widths. This drilling initiative is anticipated to increase the resource at Tahuehueto, bolstering the company’s asset base.
The combination of increased production, resource development, and exploration investment positions the company for sustained growth and profitability in the future.
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