Soma Gold10 May 2023 15:52
The El Bagre Mill has a capacity of approximately 450 tonnes per day (“tpd”) and has historically produced up to 20,000 ounces of gold doré annually. Soma’s existing El Limon and Zara projects are adjacent to El Bagre, and management believes that El Bagre’s mineralized trend extends onto the El Limon property. During 2022, Soma continued mining at the legacy La Ye and Los Mangos underground gold mines and also produced ore from the Cordero underground mine development project (“Cordero”). The La Ye and
Los Mangos mineable ore was exhausted, and their decommissioning commenced in January of 2023. At the same time, the Company announced that Cordero had achieved commercial production effective January 1, 2023. During 2023, ore from Cordero will fully replace mill feed from La Ye and Los Mangos - at a higher average grade. The Company also plans on restarting the El Limon Mill as total mining production warrants. The two mills have a combined capacity of 675 tpd and are fully permitted to a combined capacity of 1,400 tpd to accommodate future growth.
The Company anticipates Cordero reaching its initial production target of approximately 450 TPD at an average head grade of +7.0 grams per tonne (“gpt”) in H2 of 2023 – fully supplying the El Bagre mill. Subsequent to this first milestone, the Company intends to continue ramping up production to 600 TPD which will allow Soma to restart the El Limon mill.
The El Limon Project (“El Limon”) is adjacent to the El Bagre Project, and the two mills are approximately 10 kilometers apart. El Limon includes a past producing underground mine and a gold processing plant
with a capacity of approximately 225 tpd. The plant is permitted to process up to 400 tpd to allow for future
expansion. The El Limon mine and mill have both operated sporadically during the past several years and
the Company is planning on restarting the mill when the Company’s overall production in the district, including from the El Bagre complex, warrants. The mine is subject to a 3% NSR royalty on gold mined on the El Limon mineral licenses, to a maximum of US$2,000,000. Upon reaching the US$2,000,000 NSR
royalty threshold, the NSR royalty decreases to 0.5% up to a maximum of $1,000,000.
Soma has formalized agreements with three of the (formerly illegal) small miners on the El Limon Project and anticipates formalizing additional miners in the future. This allows them access to modern mining and processing technologies, including eliminating the need to use mercury to extract gold. These small miners will provide some of the feed for the El Limon mill.
From the Soma Gold AR last week. DYOR
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