Farallon Starting Up G-9 Mine in Mexico


Located 160 km southwest of Mexico City, the $139-million G-9 project is expected to produce 54,500 mt/y of copper.
Commissioning of Farallon Resources’ G-9 zinc-copper-lead-silver-gold mine in Guerrero state, Mexico, was progressing as planned as of late August 2008. New equipment, including a third Sandvik jumbo drill, an 8-yd3 Elphinstone loader and four Kenworth trucks, had recently arrived at site, completing the mining fleet needed to meet targeted mine production of 1,500 mt/d. Haulage of concentrates by truck to the port of Manzanillo was scheduled to begin in early October, with rampup to full production in early 2009. From Manzanillo, G-9 concentrates will be shipped primarily to smelters in Asia, but also to smelters elsewhere in the world.

Underground decline access to the G-9 North zone had been completed and access for stope development was underway as of late August. Mineralization had been encountered where predicted by the Farallon’s block model. Some 7,000 mt of mineralized material assaying between 8% and 11% zinc had been delivered to the plant site. The mine’s Southeast ramp was expected to reach the high-grade portions of the Southeast zone by mid-December, after which stope development and production would begin.

Mineralized material had been processed through the plant, and low-grade zinc concentrate had been produced. The water storage dam, tailings storage facility and water diversion ditch were operational.

The G-9 mine is located on Farallon’s 116-km2 Campo Morado property 160 km southwest of Mexico City. The initial 17- month mine plan is based on 700,000 mt of mineralized material at average estimated grades of 13% zinc, 1.5% copper, 1.2% lead, 150 g/mt silver and 2.2 g/mt gold. At design capacity, the concentrator is expected produce zinc, copper and lead concentrates containing 120 million lb/y of zinc, 15 million lb/y of copper, 6 million lb/y of lead, 1 million oz/y of silver and 9,000 oz/y of gold.

The G-9 project’s capital costs are forecast at $139 million.

Underground exploration is on-going in the G-9 mine, with one drill operational and another on order. The company’s objective is to have 18 months of measured resources delineated in advance of mining at all times.

As featured in Womp 08 Vol 8 - www.womp-int.com