Looks like we've impacted the share price already!
Denis McNeil met us at the mine, and he and the chief geologist gave us the tour.
Water is not considered likely to be a problem, they have bores, and many megalitres in the abandoned silver spur mine. Don't forget, they own the whole property of the mine site. It's their water. Naturally they couldn't guarantee 100% water needs, who could? And there is no telling what the Beattie Bullies might get up to in their mad scramble to rectify their shortcomings (Denis wouldn't be drawn on this point).
We drove up to the mine site from the offices, and saw nothing until we came over the crest, and were presented with a hive of activity. Three 55T trucks taking ore from the pit to the crushers, caterpillars loading trucks and crushers, and the cyanide being sprayed onto the first heap. The first batch of pregnant liquor will be processed through the electrowinning plant mid-June - won't know the heap leach recovery until then. It was 70% both in the lab test and the pilot test, so naturally they are hoping for 70% from the first real pad. They have had leach experts from a private consultant and Coeur d"Alene visit and advise them. Each heap operation has a trial and error element in it as the geology and chemistry varies from site to site, hence the trail of experts to advise on the basis of their own experiences on other sites.
The electrowinning process has worked well on the trial samples, producing crystals of Ag from 1 micron to 50 microns.
Any Q's? I'll post more later, but time for tea now.
I won't be selling mine any time soon.
MMN
macmin silver ltd
