The Company continues to mine high-grade ore during this time of reduced underground capacity
Aurcana Silver Corp ships first concentrate production and announces management change. (Credit: Walter Freudling from Pixabay)
AURCANA SILVER CORPORATION (“Aurcana” or the “Company”) (TSXV: AUN) is pleased to announce that it has shipped its first concentrate production from its wholly owned Revenue-Virginius Mine, located in Ouray, Colorado, USA.
The Company continues to mine high-grade ore during this time of reduced underground capacity. The processing system’s capability has been demonstrated through the mill operating at design capacity and the ability to produce shippable concentrate. However, the lack of consistent ore feed from the mine has been a bottleneck to optimizing processing performance.
Going forward, the near term operating plan is to continue to mine the two available stopes on the 1800 level and create a stockpile that will help ensure a longer period of sustained processing run-time. It is expected enough ore will be stockpiled to enable the processing plant to restart again during the first week of January.
Although the delays in specific underground development projects has meant the mine has been slower to get to full production than originally planned, a number of very important milestones have been achieved for the Revenue-Virginius Mine restart. First, the grade on the 1800 level based on assay results from samples taken from development advance shows the grade is as expected or better when compared against the geological model. The Company expects to be incorporating these assay results into future resource work. Second, the mine has proved the resue mining method works well for this ore-body in both dilution and geotechnical control features. And third, the processing facility has demonstrated that it can perform when given suitable ore feed to run at design rates and make sellable concentrates.
The Company continues to evaluate its development plan and timeline and will update shareholders in the new year. The #1 Raise Hoist remains the main bottleneck to achieving target mining productivities and its completion is a key to the success of the overall operation. Work on the #1 Raise Hoist continues and is the number one priority in the mine. Completion is now scheduled for May of 2022.
Aurcana also announces the resignation of Brian Briggs from the position of Chief Operating Officer of Aurcana Silver Corp and from the position of Chief Executive Officer of Ouray Silver Mining Inc (“OSMI”). The responsibilities and duties of these positions will be shared among existing managers and officers of the Company and OSMI.
Source: Company Press Release