Mining

Azure Minerals reaffirms commitment to Mexican silver projects with new advanced test work

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By Robin Bromby - 
Azure Minerals ASX AZS silver Mesa De Plata metallurgical testwork

Three holes drilled into the Mesa de Plata silver deposit collected high-grade samples for metallurgical test work.

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Azure Minerals (ASX: AZS) has underlined its commitment to its Mexican silver projects by reporting on progress with its Mesa de Plata project.

The company has now sent three samples from the Mesa de Plata silver deposit for gravity separation test work in Canada.

The company recently picked up projects in Western Australia, noting it needed to continue its exploration impetus while Mexico activities were impacted by COVID-19 restrictions.

Then and subsequently, Azure reassured shareholders that the flagship Oposura and other silver and base metals in Mexico remained top priorities.

Mesa de Plata is part of the Alacrán project, located within the Laramide copper province, which has been described by Azure as North America’s most prolific copper-producing district.

Alacrán is close to several large operating copper mines including the world-class, giant Cananea mine, Mexico’s largest open pit copper mine and one of the world’s largest and oldest mines, having opened in 1899.

According to Azure, Alacrán offers significant potential for hosting large porphyry copper deposits and high-grade precious metal deposits.

Since acquiring the project, the company has discovered two epithermal silver and gold deposits – Mesa de Plata and Loma Bonita – which together host resources of 32 million ounces of silver and 150,000oz gold.

Silver mineralisation hit at shallow depths

The three holes now the subject of test work returned assays of 10.5m at 805 grams per tonne silver, including 6m at 1,284g/t; 15m at 677g/t including 3m at 1,832g/t; and 10.5m at 774g/t including 3m at 1,006g/t silver.

The holes intersected mineralisation at downhole depths of 12m, 39m and 1.5m, respectively.

Azure said previous metallurgical studies demonstrated silver recoveries of up to 76% were produced through flotation and cyanide leaching processes, with follow-up tests showing the unrecovered silver can be concentrated and collected by gravity separation to produce high-grade silver concentrate.

The unrecovered silver is described as a “dense, silver-rich mineral called romeite, which neither floats nor leaches”.

At Mesa de Plata, the high-grade silver zone outcrops as the ridge capping on top of the hill.

It contains measured and indicated resources of 1.8 million tonnes at 275g/t silver for a contained 15.5Moz silver. This is within a total resource of 10.5Mt at 82g/t silver for 27.4Moz silver.