Volcan Compania Minera the largest producer of silver and zinc seconds in Peru
Plans to produce 6 to 11 million ounces of silver in two projects developed in Cerro DE Pasco mining unit: Oxides of Silver and Silver-Copper Pyrites, from 2014, said Juan Jose Herrera, general manager of Volcano, in his presentation at PERUMIN.
He said that both projects have to do with the recovery of silver from the row components accumulated during decades of exploitation in Cerro de Pasco, and possibly double or even triple the current production of 4.3 million ounces of silver. The planned investment in these two projects, worth U.S. $ 100 million, will enable Cerro de Pasco is becoming the most mi na silver producer in Peru, a location which today corresponds to the mine Pallancata operated by Hochschild Mining, with 10.14 million ounces produced in 2010.
Reformulated its activities Volcan Cerro de Pasco with the expansion of its operations (PlanL), focusing on the underground mine and the exploitation of materials and pyrite oxidized silver-silver lying on the surface. Since early 2011, Cerro de Pasco mine is operated by a new subsidiary of Volcan, Cerro Administrator.
Juan Jose Herrera, general manager of Volcano, said the high price of silver given to the opportunity to leverage Volcan clearing was done on the job for decades, during which time materials were accumulated and oxidized pyrite-silver they have some metal complex and not take on the surface.
“To exploit both types of mineral leaching processes need to implement diversion than before because they did not use entirely doomed sulfide processing. Thus, in the case of oxides, we will use leaching, and in the case of using a dual-pyrite flotation and leaching. To do this we are making progress and with permission, “he explained.
To retrieve the silver oxides, Volcan build a leaching plant capacity of 2,500 tpd which will process the ore in situ (5.2 Mt) and stacks of ore (4.4 Mt) with an investment of U.S. $ 40 million.
To recover the pyrite-silver, construct a flotation plant-leaching process tpd flotation Sarah 3.000 4.000 tpd and leaching, with a total investment of U.S. $ 60 million. This plant will recover the silver contained in ore piles (21.7 Mt) and the mineral in-situ (107 Mt).
In addition, three other projects Volcan develop silver in its mining units Alpamarca, Chung and Vinchos, which will produce 3.5 to 5 million ounces of silver, 1.5 to 2 million ounces and 1 to 2 million ounces of silver, respectively, 2013. All these projects will generate between 12 to 20 million ounces of silver in addition to the 20 million ounces produced in all Volcan mines during 2010.
Volcan is a secondary producer of silver, which is obtained by exploitation of lead and zinc polymetallic mines and in 2010 was the sixth largest silver producer in the world with 20.3 million ounces, followed by Hochschild Mining, with 17.8 million ounces.
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