The company said it will be spending this month and next preparing the areas it has earmarked for leach pads and holding ponds. It also will be beginning to work on road construction in the planned mining area.
Construction at Santana, which completed its bulk test mining in 2018, is projected to take six to eight months. To date, it has already completed work on explosive storage and detonator bunkers.
"This year will be an exciting one as we build and commission our first gold mine and complete the transformation…into a new gold producer," CEO Darren Koningen said.
In addition to the 100%-owned Santana, Canada-based Minera Alamos also owns the La Fortuna open-pit gold project in Mexico's Durango state, which is currently in development and should enter the construction phase this year.
