Atico Mining reports in Q2 operating results from El Roble mine, Colombia
Atico Mining Corp. [ATY-TSXV; ATCMF-OTCQX] reported its operating results for the three months ended June 30, 2023, from its El Roble mine, Colombia. Production for the quarter totalled 2.80 million pounds of copper and 2,294 ounces of gold in concentrates, a decrease of 22% for copper and 18% for gold, over the same period in 2022.
“The El Roble mine continued to show improvement for the period in terms of both processed tones and increase in head grades over the previous quarter. The processing plant is again reaching steady state levels of 900 tonnes per day while the mine continues to transition back into higher grade areas. We anticipate further improvement in overall production results and metal output for the second half of the year,” said Fernando E. Ganoza, CEO. “For the remainder of the year we will continue our strong focus towards mine vicinity exploration at the El Roble mine, looking to build on the success of the recent drill results in the historic areas of the deposit.”
Second quarter operational highlights: Production of 2.80 million pounds of copper contained in concentrates, a decrease of 22% over Q2 2022; production of 2,294 ounces of gold contained in concentrates, a decrease of 18% over Q2 2022; and average processed tonnes per day of 800, a decrease of 10% over Q2 2022; copper head grade of 2.04%, a decrease of 36% over Q2 2022; gold head grade of 1.78 g/t, a decrease of 28% over Q2 2022; copper and gold recovery of 91.1% and 58.7%; no significant change for copper and a decrease of 7 per cent gold over Q2 2022.
The number of shipments the company can export in any given quarter depends on several variables some of which the company does not control, hence there may be an inherent variability in tonnes shipped quarter to quarter.
The El Roble mine is a high-grade, underground copper and gold mine with nominal processing plant capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day, located in the Department of Choco, Colombia. Its commercial product is a copper-gold concentrate.
Since obtaining control of the mine on November 22, 2013, Atico has upgraded the operation from a historical nominal capacity of 400 tonnes per day.
El Roble has proven and probable reserves of 1.00 million tonnes grading 3.02% copper and 1.76 g/t gold, at a cut-off grade of 1.3% copper equivalent as of September 30, 2020. Mineralization is open at depth and along strike and the company plans to further test the limits of the deposit.
Atico generates significant cash flow through the operation of the El Roble mine and is developing its high-grade La Plata VMS project in Ecuador.