macmin takes on new technology

Hi,

i found that at the Homepage, its from March 2008



[b]Macmin takes on new technology[/b]

Macmin Silver Ltd has the unique distinction
of being the only Australian company employing heap leach technology to produce silver powder.
And taking advantage of buoyant international
silver prices – $US16.89/oz in early February – production from its flagship Twin Hills open cut mine, 10km east of the township
of Texas in south-east Queensland, is set to provide Macmin with cash flow for its other projects elsewhere in the state.
Four years after the company decided to develop Twin Hills on the back of the rising international silver price, production started last year and is gradually being ramped up to 2.16 moz pa.

[b]When Paydirt visited the Twin Hills operations[/b]

[i](Who is "Paydirt")???????[/i]?:confused:

400km inland from the Gold Coast late in January about 62,000oz silver had been produced
since the start of commissioning.
Managing director until last October and now executive director Denis O’Neill said the company’s approach in its development as a premier Australian silver-focused company “[b]has always been long-term”.[/b]
This has been borne out with Macmin beginning
its exploration on the Twin Hills project with JV partner Hunter Exploration NL in
1994-98 when silver mineralisation was delineated.
Macmin subsequently re-acquired Hunter’s interest in the project in 1998 and after further extensive drilling completed the initial Twin Hills feasibility study at the end of 2000.
Clearing the site began in 2005 and a year later overburden removal, crushing plant installation
and construction of the electrowinning
plant were carried out with mining starting
early last year.

Today the project, which is contained within a 890ha mining lease, has a measured resource
of 2.9mt @ 72 g/t silver and 0.1 g/t gold for a contained 6.7 moz silver and 9,300oz gold; an indicated resource of 8.7mt @ 43 g/t silver and 0.1 g/t gold, containing 11.9 moz silver and 28,000oz gold, and an inferred resource
of 6.95mt @ 44 g/t silver and 0.1 g/t gold containing 9.8 moz silver and 22,000oz gold.

[b]The open cut from where ore is being sourced has now reached a depth of about 30m and will ultimately reach a design depth of about 100m.[/b]
The mining contractor being used for the Twin Hills project has provided four 50t haul trucks with Macmin providing the operators.

Executive director Ed Newman told Paydirt
that silver was presently being produced from one 200m long by 120m wide by 8m high leach pad.
Solution from the irrigated pad percolates through the crushed ore over a 24-hour period into two of three process ponds with pregnant liquor pumped from two of the ponds to the EW circuit which consists of three banks each of 60 cells. The spent solution is pumped into the third pond and then reused to irrigate the pad.

[b]The operation will ultimately see ore crushed to minus 4mm, stacked on three leach pads with pregnant solution going through a Merrill
Crowe plant scheduled for installation in February and then through the EW circuit for a monthly production rate of 180,000oz silver based on leaching 60,000 tpm of medium and high-grade ore.[/b]

Macmin chairman Bob McNeil said with a very healthy outlook for silver prices going forward, drilling would continue at Mt Gunyan, 1.5km north-east from the Twin Hill operations.
Drilling carried out by Macmin since 1994 from a total of about 260 drill holes allowed the calculation of a resource.




At a 30 g/t silver equivalent cut-off, the indicated
resource has been estimated at 2.1mt @ 68 g/t silver equivalent. The shallow drilling demonstrated that the silver occurred as a near-surface low-grade envelope within which occurred sub-vertical high-grade zones with one hole intercepting 34m @ 333 g/t silver.

[b]“We recently announced a 1m interval of very high-grade mineralisation – 542 g/t silver and 172 g/t gold,” said McNeil. “This is exceptionally high grade with one tonne of rock
having a gross metal value of approximately $4,300 at current metal prices. In this business,grade is king.”[/b]

Further drilling targeting the shallow areas of mineralisation at Mt Gunyan was scheduled for the January-March quarter.
In addition to Mt Gunyan, a small percussion drilling programme of 320m had identified the new Kemps prospect about 3km north-west of Twin Hills.

Results included 10m @ 24 g/t silver and 0.3 g/t gold and 10m @ 9.6 g/t silver and 0.47 g/t gold.

McNeil added that the silver powder produced at Twin Hills together with that hopefully to come from the Mt Gunyan and Kemps prospects was a unique product which Macmin eventually expected to sell at a premium to the spot silver price.

– Allan Francis who visited the Twin Hills project

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If i read that:

The open cut from where ore is being sourced has now reached a depth of about 30m and will ultimately reach a design depth of about 100m.
........................................................

and than these:

[i]At a 30 g/t silver equivalent cut-off, the indicated
resource has been estimated at 2.1mt @ 68 g/t silver equivalent. The shallow drilling demonstrated that the silver occurred as a near-surface low-grade envelope within which occurred sub-vertical high-grade zones with one hole intercepting 34m @ 333 g/t silver.[/i]
............................................................

That means to me, that they will reach the higher grad survace / mineralisationin 4 meters!!!



[i]“We recently announced a 1m interval of very high-grade mineralisation – [green]542 g/t silver and 172 g/t gold[/green],” said McNeil.[/i]

That sounds also not bad to me!!!!
...........................................................

Mt Gunyan is not so far (1,5 km)away, and Kemps (3 km) also not. The drilling results were also not bad at Mt. Gunyan

DRILLING AT MT GUNYAN INTERSECTS VERY PROMISING SILVER VALUES TO 524g/t
[url]http://www.macmin.com.au/deutsche-presse/pressemitteilung-2007/index.htm#desep25[/url]
MT GUNYAN DRILLING INTERSECTS FURTHER GOOD RESULTS with SILVER to 176g/t, GOLD to 6.5g/t, ZINC to 16% and LEAD to 9%
[url]http://www.macmin.com.au/deutsche-presse/pressemitteilung-2007/index.htm#denov13[/url]

Did they already do some drilling at "Kemps", i did not find any results.
These to targets, Mt Gunyan and Kemps are in reach of the Mine. Is it possible to use the Twin Hills Mine to get the silver out of them?

There is some mor to read in the link below, also Pictures vrom the Mine and Silver Spur!!!!!


http://www.macmin.com.au/media/2008/PaydirtMarch2008.pdf