Minera Alamos has begun to reevaluate aspects of its mining and processing to improve efficiencies and reduce delays at its Santana gold mine in Mexico.
The active leach pad has a cumulated recovery of 70%, and mining rates have approached initial monthly targets of 100,000 tonnes of material from the Nicho Norte starter pit.
Due to bottlenecking issues, Minera Alamos scaled back mining over the holiday period and conferred with its mining contractor on ways to eliminate the delays.
Part of the delays stems from 70% of ore being directed to the crusher, instead of the leach pad. Currently 70% of mined material is being directed to the crusher, which is much higher than Minera Alamos anticipated.
The mining company will increase the crushing cut-offs in the next phase, which should even out the ratio to 50-50.
Minera Alamos is also looking to lower the costs of both crushing and blasting, by improving fragmentation in mineralised zones and minimise in waste areas.
The company is also working with the contractor to relocate its site crushing operations to move them closer to the mining area. Minera Alamos is also considering reducing the overall size of its fleet.
The leach pad stacking sequence has also been adjusted to reduce equipment and leaching congestion.
Minera Alamos has also been hit by COVID-related supply chain issues, and is now looking to reduce delays in procuring maintenance parts and equipment. It is considering several options, the company said.
The company has also sped up construction of its on-site laboratory to obtain basic mine blasthole and leach solution analyses. Minera Alamos is trying to reduce the number of samples it sends to third-party laboratories and cut down time delays in receiving results.
Alamos is also negotiating with new suppliers for reagents and site maintenance equipment to reduce delays.
By the end of last year, Minera Alamos moved 9,100 ounces of gold had been moved to the leach pad.
The company is working to improve recovery of gold above 70%.
It also recorded low reagent consumptions of approximately 0.2 kilogramme/tonne of sodium cyanide and less than two kilogrammes per tonne of lime.
Minera Alamos vowed last year to achieve steady gold production at the mine.
