Southern Silver files PEA for Cerro Las Minitas, Mexico
Southern Silver Exploration Corp. [SSV-TSXV; SSVFF-OTCQB; SEG1-FSE; SSVCL-Santiago] filed on SEDAR its NI 43-101 technical report titled “Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Cerro Las Minitas Project, Durango, Mexico,” dated October 13, 2022. The report was authored by M3 Engineering & Technology Corp., Kirkham Geosystems Ltd., Entech Mining Ltd. and Metallurgical Process Consultants Ltd.
Filing of the technical report follows Southern Silver’s news release issued August 29, 2022, announcing the results of its preliminary economic assessment on its 100%-owned Cerro Las Minitas project 70 km northeast of Durango, Mexico.
PEA highlights: Robust project economics: an after-tax net present value discounted at 8% of US$220-million (CDN$302-million); after-tax NPV discounted at 5% of US$349-million (CDN$480-million) and project internal rate of return of 17.9% (using base-case metal pricing of silver: US$21.95/oz, copper: US$3.78/lb, lead: US$0.94/lb and zinc: US$1.33/lb).
Large-scale underground mining operation with a 15-year mine life with an annual average plant feed of 14.2 million ounces silver equivalent (including 5.8 million ounces silver).
High-revenue project: base-case gross revenues total US$3.7-billion with silver representing 42% of revenues, zinc representing 39% of revenues; the project has an initial capex of US$341-million.
Well-located project in a mining-friendly jurisdiction with excellent infrastructure in southeast Durango state, Mexico.
Further exploration upside: Drilling through to August, 2022, has confirmed mineralized extensions to the Mina La Bocona and Skarn Front deposits that have not been incorporated into the current resource model. Other deposits remain open laterally and to depth, and remain to be explored.
Southern Silver is advancing the Cerro Las Minitas project, one of the world’s largest undeveloped silver-lead-zinc deposits, to a production decision.