Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/882975
O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7 www.resourceworld.com 53 GOLDEN ARROW RESOURCES CORP. [GRG-TSXV; GARWF-OTCQB; G6A-SE] and joint venture partner SSR Mining Inc. [SSRM-TSX, NASDAQ], formerly Silver Standard Resources, are gradually working through the Argentine permitting process to begin production at the Chinchillas open pit silver mine. It is expected the exploitation permit will be received in the near future. The joint venture, named Puna Operations Inc., was formed to hold Golden Arrow's Chinchillas Project and SSR's Pirquitas Project, which consists of the now closed San Miguel open pit mine and associated mineral processing and tail- ings facility in Jujuy Province, northern Argentina. Puna is 75% owned and oper- ated by Silver Standard, and 25% owned by Golden Arrow. The joint venture was formed in order to mine the Chinchillas deposit and truck the ore to the Pirquitas mill for processing. The Chinchillas silver (lead-zinc) deposit will be mined by conventional drill, blast, truck and loading open pit methods. A fleet of 35-tonne road haul trucks will transport ore 42 km to the Pirquitas mill. Haul truck, loading equipment and drills at Pirquitas will be transferred to Chinchillas. The plan enables the project to use existing equip- ment and infrastructure for capital cost savings and an expected shorter time to production at the Chinchillas Mine. Mining the Chinchillas deposit is expected to supply the Pirquitas opera- tion with milling ore in the second half of 2018. It is expected that the average annual silver equivalent production will total 8.4 million ounces over an eight-year mine life at a production rate of 4,000 tonnes per day. Golden Arrow's 25% share of aver- age annual production would equate to 2,100,000 ounces of silver equivalent. This would represent total attributable after-tax undiscounted cash flow of US $66.75 mil- lion, based on a recent prefeasibility study. Meanwhile, Joseph Grosso, Executive Chairman, President and CEO of Golden Arrow, told Resource World that the com- pany has created a new company for its Argentine exploration projects that would be a subsidiary of Golden Arrow named New Golden Explorations Inc. One of the New Golden Explorations projects is the Antofalla silver-gold project in Catamarca Province where initial results from soil sampling and surface surveys have been encouraging. This has prompted the company to plan a 3,000-metre drill program for the fourth quarter this year. Golden Arrow is also making plans for an exploration program on its Pescado gold project located in San Juan Province where it has two other projects – the Mogote copper-gold project and the Potrerillo gold-silver project. Other exploration projects include the Don Bosco and Caballos copper-gold projects in La Rioja Province. Grosso said that Golden Arrow intends to fund New Golden Explorations' initial working capital by tapping into the ven- ture capital markets. It is intended that New Golden Explorations' operations will be self-financing by way of equity financ- ings, and, possibly, with an initial public offering in the near future. Golden Arrow intends to retain a controlling share posi- tion in New Golden Explorations. n Golden Arrow/SSR Mining advancing toward production at Chinchillas by Ellsworth Dickson MINING