{"id":1160613,"date":"2020-01-17T15:45:31","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T21:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1011622"},"modified":"2020-01-17T15:45:31","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T21:45:31","slug":"minera-alamos-starts-construction-on-santana-mine-in-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1160613","title":{"rendered":"Minera Alamos starts construction on Santana mine in Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Minera Alamos\u00a0(TSXV: MAI) has started construction of its Santana open-pit heap leach mine in Sonora state and expects to transition from a developer to gold producer this year.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Between now and then it plans to complete a maiden resource for the project.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Santana gold project does not have a completed feasibility study or technical report, however, results from the 50,000 tonne bulk heap-leach test completed between 2018 and 2019 were positive and management built the Castillo mine in Mexico in the same fashion,\u201d Kerry Smith of Haywood Securities said in a research note. \u201cFor 2020 we model 15,000 ounces of production in a partial year, followed by 35,000 oz. in 2021 with all-in sustaining costs of ~$800 per ounce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The mining analyst estimates the initial capital cost for the project will run to $10 million.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p> Minera Alamos holds two development projects in its project portfolio that can be quickly ramped up to production, with the potential to produce ~100,000 ounces of gold over the next few years <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Smith has a buy rating on the stock and recommends \u201caccumulating shares at current levels.\u201d At press time the company\u2019s shares were trading at 28.5\u00a2 and Smith has a 50\u00a2 target price on the stock.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMinera Alamos holds two development projects in its project portfolio that can be quickly ramped up to production, with the potential to produce ~100,000 ounces of gold over the next few years,\u201d he stated. \u201cThe company\u2019s strategy of finding, building and expanding low capex, near-term projects in Mexico is something that the management team has successfully done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CEO Darren Koningen was a founding member and vice president of mine development at Castle Gold and played a key role in the development and commissioning of the El Castillo heap leach gold mine in Durango, Mexico.\u00a0Argonaut Gold\u00a0TSX: AR) acquired Castle Gold for C$130 million in 2009.<\/p>\n<p>Federico Alvarez, vice president and project development at Minera Alamos, previously worked for Castle Gold and Argonaut Gold as vice president of operations, supervising production at El Castillo. Alvarez also has good connections in Mexico, where he held the position of director of mining affairs for the state of Guanajuato. Miguel Cardona, Minera Alamos\u2019 vice president of exploration, managed exploration for Castle Gold, leading a three-fold increase in El Castillo\u2019s resources from 400,000 oz. gold to 1.2 million oz. prior to its acquisition.<\/p>\n<p>Breccias typically outcrop at surface at Santana and the company is undertaking a systematic review of the entire 8,500-hectare project area to identify additional surface expressions with potential for resources.<\/p>\n<p>During its bulk test mining phase in mid-2018, about 1,000 oz. gold was recovered.<\/p>\n<p>The company recently closed a $6 million financing with\u00a0Osisko Gold Royalties\u00a0(TSX: OR) consisting of 30 million common shares at 20\u00a2, giving Osisko an 18.7% stake.<\/p>\n<p>Minera Alamos also owns 100% of the La Fortuna project in Mexico\u2019s Durango state, about 85 km southwest of the city of Culiacan. Based on a preliminary economic assessment, the gold-silver-copper project would have a mine life of five years based on an initial resource starter pit and average annual production of 50,000 equivalent oz. gold.<\/p>\n<p>La Fortuna has measured and indicated resources of 3.5 million tonnes grading 2.78 grams gold per tonne, 16.51 grams silver per tonne and 0.22% copper for contained metal of 309,800 oz. gold, 1.84 million oz. silver and 7,600 tonnes copper.<\/p>\n<p>The company has a market cap of $116 million. Its 406 million common shares outstanding have traded in a range of 10\u00a2 and 32\u00a2 over the last year.<\/p>\n<p><em>(This article first appeared in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.northernminer.com\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" The Northern Miner (opens in a new tab)\"> The Northern Miner<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minera Alamos holds two development projects in its project portfolio that can be quickly ramped up to production.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2849,369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1160613"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1160631,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160613\/revisions\/1160631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1160613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1160613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1160613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}