Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCwire) - PPX Mining Corp. (the "Company" or “PPX”) is pleased to announce that the Company has commenced the permitting process for a gold and silver heap leach processing plant at the Company’s Igor Project in northern Peru.
Given the time line of the permitting process and the planned completion of a Pre Feasibility Study (“PFS”) in Q1 2018, the Company has opted to start permitting now in order to minimize or eliminate delays in constructing the processing plant should that option be recommended by the PFS. The Company will permit the processing plant utilizing a Semi Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIAsd”) submitted to the Gerencia Regional de Energía, Minas e Hidrocarburos (“GREMH”), Department of La Libertad.
The first step in the process, the submission of the Terms of Reference (“TOR”), has been completed by the Company and approved by GREMH La Libertad. The TOR outlines the basic engineering and design of the heap leach plant and also the specific steps required to complete the EIAsd.
As submitted in the TOR, PPX plans to build a 350 metric tonne/day heap leach processing facility on Company owned land at the Igor Project. The facility will include a primary and secondary rock crusher, loading conveyers, heap leach pads, a Merrill-Crowe precious metal recovery plant capable of producing dore on site, and associated support facilities. The crushing circuit will be permitted at 350 tpd but have sufficient excess capacity to allow production of up to 700 tpd of crushed material to facilitate future expansion if warranted. Plant layout is being permitted so that other processing facilities, i.e. a conventional milling and tank leaching circuit, can be added in the future without undue additional cost.
Cyanide column leach testing by BM Ingenieros SAC (Lima, Peru) in May and July of 2015 showed gold recoveries between 74.4 and 85.4% over leaching periods of 10 to 30 days. The Company has commenced a confirmatory round of metallurgical testing utilizing samples collected from the underground mine workings at Mina Callanquitas. The results of this column leach testing will be used for the detailed design engineering, developing the flow sheet for the heap leach plant, and also will be incorporated into the PFS.
The permitting process involves multiple public meetings throughout the permit process to insure that all stakeholders are kept informed regarding the impacts of the proposed facility. Environmental baseline monitoring will begin immediately. Final permits to construct and operate the plant require the completion of detailed engineering and approval by GREMH La Libertad.
About PPX Mining Corp: PPX Mining Corp. (TSX.V: PPX.V, SSE: PPX, BVL: PPX) is a Canadian-based exploration and development company with assets in northern Peru. Igor, the Company’s 100%-owned flagship gold and silver project, is located in the prolific Northern Peru gold belt in eastern La Libertad Department. PPX is pursuing a two-prong strategy to further develop and explore the Igor Project. The Company has begun work on its underground test mining and bulk sampling program which is designed to upgrade the resource estimate and generate data to evaluate the possibility of future mine development at Igor through the PFS process. To date, PPX has processed over 4,807 tonnes of bulk sample averaging 8.07 gpt gold. Simultaneously, PPX is accelerating its exploration program at Igor in order to fully evaluate the resource potential of the entire Igor project area. The Callanquitas Structure is open along strike and at depth. Parallel structures are unexplored and, coupled with the Domo and Tesoros areas; these drill targets highlight the exploration potential at Igor. Evaluating mine development alternatives in parallel with exploration drilling provide dual catalysts for growth and increasing shareholder value.
Previous exploration on the Callanquitas Structure discovered a significant Inferred gold and silver resource: 7,189,000 tonnes grading 1.94 gpt gold and 71.8 gpt silver containing 448,500 ounces of gold and 16,600,000 ounces of silver at a cutoff grade of 1.5 gpt gold equivalent. Included within this resource estimate is a higher grade zone consisting of 2,730,000 tonnes grading 2.73 gpt gold and 119.1 gpt silver containing 239,400 ounces of gold and 10,500,000 ounces of silver using a 3.0 gpt gold equivalent cutoff grade (Please see Technical Report, amended September 27, 2013, available on the Company’s website or SEDAR). Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the mineral resource will be converted into mineral reserves.
All scientific and technical information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Quentin J. Browne, P.Geo., Independent Consulting Geologist to PPX Mining Corp., who is a qualified person under the definitions established by National Instrument 43-101.
