The La Colorada Mine is a gold-silver open pit and heap leach mining operation in the State of Sonora. The property comprises 41 titled concessions covering 10,085 ha.
The facilities include three open pits, a three-stage crushing plant with 12,000 tpd capacity, conveyors, multi-lift single-use leach pads, a carbon absorption circuit and a stripping and electro-winning circuit. The La Colorada Mine operates a separate circuit to process loaded carbon received from the San Agustin Mine.
Operations at the La Colorada Mine restarted in 2012. As of December 31, 2023, the mine has produced 485,640 ounces of gold and 1,680,197 ounces of silver (2012-2023). The mine is currently re-leaching with 3,922 ounces of gold and 6,848 ounces of silver produced in 1Q 2024.
All technical information on the La Colorada Mine is based on a technical report entitled “La Colorada Gold/Silver Mine NI 43-101 Technical Report” with an effective date of October 1, 2021, filed on SEDAR by Argonaut on February 14, 2022 (the “La Colorada Technical Report”). To the best of Heliostar’s knowledge, information, and belief, the La Colorada Technical Report is considered current pursuant to NI 43-101 and there is no new material scientific or technical information that would make the disclosure of the mineral resources, mineral reserves or results of the La Colorada Technical Report inaccurate or misleading.
While the Company considers the La Colorada Technical Report to be current, it plans to prepare an updated technical report based on its revised approach to developing the La Colorada Mine and will file such technical report within 180 days of this news release.
The La Colorada Mine has two development projects: the El Creston cutback and the Veta Madre cutback. The El Creston cutback is an expansion to the existing El Creston pit with probable mineral reserves of 220,000 ounces of gold and 4,114,000 ounces of silver. The Veta Madre cutback is an expansion to the existing Veta Madre pit with probable mineral reserves of 163,000 ounces of gold and 1,009,000 ounces of silver. Permits have been obtained for the El Creston cutback. Veta Madre is not permitted and the company plans to submit a permit application in the coming months.
The La Colorada Mine has significant growth potential. Resources at all three pits are open along strike and at depth providing both open-pit and underground mining potential.
Heliostar will assess four opportunities for resource growth at La Colorada:
Waste to Ore Conversion – Within the proposed pit shell for the cutback at El Creston, large areas are considered waste because those areas have not been drilled. The Company believes that some of these areas may be mineralized. The Company will prioritize drilling in these areas to support mining studies in support of a new mine plan for the La Colorada Mine
Depth Potential - The oxide mineralized zones within the three open pits remain open at depth and warrant additional investigation assuming both open pit and underground mining methods
Underground Potential - Mining and ore control in all three pits indicate that the mineralized zones are open at depth, and not constrained by drilling. Argonaut internally evaluated the potential for underground mining operations below the open pits, and Heliostar plans to explore this opportunity
Regional Exploration - A regional exploration program will be designed to test significant, yet undrilled gold-in-soil anomalies. The area west and southwest of the Gran Central pit remains underexplored and holds considerable potential for additional mineralization to be outlined in the area.
