Resource World Magazine

A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 1 9 www.resourceworld.com 7 MEXICO Agnico also has the 100%-owned Santa Gertrudis gold property, which covers 44,145 hectares located 180 km north of Hermosillo, Sonora. The company has so far outlined an inferred mineral resource of 962,000 ounces of gold. Alamos Gold Inc. [AGI-TSX, NYSE] is a Canadian-based intermediate gold pro - ducer with diversified production from four operating mines in North America, including the Young-Davidson, and Island Gold mines in northern Ontario, and the Mulatos and El Chanate mines in Sonora Mexico. Mining activities ceased at El Chanate in the fourth quarter of 2018 and the operation has transitioned to residual leaching, which will result in declining production to 15,000 to 25,000 ounces through 2019. Total production from the Mulatos District is expected to be between 150,000 to 160,000 ounces of gold this year. See Alamos Gold interview page 14. Alio Gold Inc. [ALO-TSX, NYSE] is a Canadian gold mining company engaged in production, development and explora - tion in Mexico. Its principal assets include the producing San Francisco gold mine in Sonora and the development-stage Ana Paula development project in Guerrero. San Francisco is an open pit heap leach operation with a mineral reserve of 928,700 ounces of gold (58.4 million tonnes at 0.53 g/t). The deposit is still open along strike and at depth, with exploration potential for high-grade ore beneath the existing pit. San Francisco produced 53,990 ounces of gold in 2018. Alio recently said it was looking at several options for its San Francisco gold- silver mine to reduce mining dilution in 2019, including a temporary suspension of mining while continuing to leach and pro - cess low-grade ore from stockpiles. In a February 2019 update, Alio said gold production for January was consis- tent with fourth quarter production of approximately 3,890 ounces. The company said 528,770 tonnes of stockpiled material was stacked on the leach pads in January. There are sufficient stockpiles to operate at this capacity throughout 2019, the com - pany said. Americas Silver Corp. [USA-TSX, USAS-NYSE American] recently agreed to combine with Pershing Gold Corp. [PGLC- TSX, NASDAQ] saying the combination will create a low-cost precious metal growth company in the Americas. The combined portfolio will include two producing poly - metallic mines in Mexico and Idaho that are expected to produce approximately 7 million ounces of silver annually. The other asset is a shovel-ready development project in Nevada, known as Relief Canyon, with the potential to add another 91,000 ounces of annual gold production. The 100%-owned Cosala Operation is located in Sinaloa, Mexico. The San Rafael Mine is now the sole source of mill feed at the Cosala Operations. It is a low-cost silver-zinc-lead underground mine located approximately 9 km from the Los Bracero's mill. The Cosala Operation produced 4.2 million silver equivalent ounces. Argonaut Gold Inc. [AR-TSX] aims to create the next quality mid-tier gold pro - ducer in the Americas with production of between 300,000 and 500,000 ounces. Its Mexican operations include the Castillo Complex in Durango and its La Colorada Mine in Sonora. The El Castillo Complex is made up of the El Castillo and San Agustin Mines, which share infrastructure and resources. Back in March 2018, Argonaut Gold reported a 74% increase in contained gold ounces at El Castillo, where reserves now stand at 40.8 million tonnes, grad - ing 0.40 g/t, containing 522,000 ounces of gold. It said the increase was largely achieved through the addition of the San Juan concessions that were recently acquired from Fresnillo PLC [FRES-LON], a Mexico-based precious metals company. In addition, the latest update returned maiden reserves at both La Colorada and San Agustin. It is worth noting that Argonaut outlined 220,000 ounces of gold in the measured and indicated resources category at El Castillo, thus highlighting the potential for reserve additions through future upgrades of material that is currently in the resource category. At La Colorada, the company continues to demonstrate its ability to consistently replace the ounces it depletes annually, through mining, due to successful exploration programs. Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. [ASM-TSX] operates two producing mines on its Avino property in Mexico – the Avino and San Gonzalo. The San Gonzalo Mine is located approximately 2 km from the original Avino Mine and beneath the shallow workings of an old mine from the Colonial period. The company recently expanded the milling operation at the Avino property to 2,500 tonnes-per-day, up from 1,500 tonnes. The company also increased the measured and indicated resources by 225% at the Avino property. It remains optimistic regarding the vast unexplored potential across the Avino property which hosts dozens of historic shallow artisanal mines. The Avino property yielded 2.7 million ounces of silver equivalent in 2017, a 1% increase from 2.67 million ounces in the previous year. Aztec Minerals Corp. [AZT-TSXV; AZZTF-OTCQB] reported positive bottle roll gold recoveries from metallurgical testwork on the California porphyry gold- copper drill core from the 100%-optioned Cervantes property in Sonora. Gold recov - eries ranged up to 94.2%. Capstone Mining Corp. [CS-TSX] has two producing copper mines. They are the Pinto Valley Mine in Arizona, and the Cozamin Mine in Zacatecas Mexico. Capstone recently said proven and prob - able mineral reserves at Cozamin have increased by 89% from a previous esti- mate and now stand at 6.2 million tonnes grading 1.60% copper. The company also said inferred resources at Cozamin have increased to 17 million tonnes at a cop- per grade of 1.11%, including 9.5 million tonnes grading 1.61% copper in the Mala Noche Footwall Zone. Coeur Mining Co. [CDE-NYSE] is a growing precious metals producer with five operations in North America. They include the Palmarejo silver-gold complex LEFT: Underground mining operations at Fortuna Silver's San Jose silver-gold mine in Oaxaca, Mexico. Photo courtesy Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.

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