Mining Americas Inc. announced that the Mexican Federal Environmental Department (SEMARNAT) approved the key permits required for the development of the company’s Cerro de Oro open-pit, heap-leach gold mine in northern Zacatecas State, Mexico. Specifically, SEMARNAT has approved the land use change (ETJ-CUS) and the environmental impact assessment (MIA) for the project.
Alongside making the payments necessary to ratify the ETJ-CUS in the near term, the company said it will start planning the advancement of Cerro de Oro towards a construction decision. This includes progression of ancillary permits, licenses and approvals required for construction and operation of the project. Detailed engineering and mine designs will also be evaluated in the context of the current elevated gold price environment. In addition, Mining Americas is planning for a drill program which will provide material for additional metallurgical test work optimization studies and test the depth extents of the deposit where mineralization is open below the current resource depth of approximately 130 meters.
“This provides a clear path for a significant increase in our gold production over the medium term,” said Mining Americas CEO, Darren Blasutti. “With these permits now approved, we will start planning the advancement of Cerro de Oro towards a construction decision. We are excited to now evaluate the project in the context of significantly higher gold prices and their potential positive impacts to both the size and economics of the project.
“With Cerro de Oro permits approved, we now have key permits in place for all our cornerstone growth projects including the construction-stage Copperstone underground gold project in Arizona and the Gold Rock open pit heap leach project adjacent to the producing Pan mine,” he continued. “We look forward to continuing to advance construction at Copperstone, making a construction decision for Gold Rock later this year and progressing Cerro de Oro to a potential construction decision in 2027.”
The ~6,500-hectare Cerro de Oro gold project is positioned within the Concepcion del Oro mining district that includes several gold and polymetallic mines and deposits. Historic mining in the district focused on higher-grade skarn-replacement type mineralization. More recent drilling has identified broad zones of intrusive-hosted gold mineralization. The Cerro de Oro property and surrounding claims present an open-pittable target of disseminated gold mineralization where previous metallurgical test work has indicated it should be amenable to conventional open-pit/heap leach processing and extraction.
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