Category: Exploration and Development

The Mulatos operation has been an incredible success story. It started producing gold in 2005 with approximately a seven-year mine life and 14 years later, the mine still has six years of reserves ahead of it. We would like to acknowledge all our employees, the local communities, and elected officials for their continued support in helping us achieve this significant milestone. The Mulatos District still holds great potential and we look forward to many more years of profitable production, said John A. McCluskey, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Alonso Lujan, Vice President of Exploration, stated: The areas tested in the Titan 24 survey demonstrated an excellent relationship between chargeability and the structures. Based on those results, the Company continued to test these areas with drilling programs. This has resulted in the definition of a new structure which demonstrates the continuity of previously defined wide, high-grade, copper structures. The Company plans to drill an additional six to seven holes, approximately 2,500 meters, within this area in 2019. Depending on success further holes and drilling could be added. Further to the success at the West Extension, the potential for further extensions to the North of this zone remains open.

The increased resource at Ermitano adds further value and longevity to Evrim’s royalty in the event the deposit is placed into commercial production, commented Paddy Nicol, Evrim’s President and CEO. According to First Majestic, Ermitaño could add several years of mine life to the Santa Elena Mine. Moreover, 16,000 metres of drilling is underway that could expand the deposit at depth and along strike. Environmental permitting is in its final stages.

Ruben Padilla, Vice President of Exploration for Sable Commented: Hole 24 returned our best results to date with some of our highest silver, gold and zinc grades across a large intercept. This hole was intended to test close to surface mineralisation above low-grade mineralisation intercepted at depth in Hole 3 and we are delighted at hitting such strong, thick mineralisation.

The Leachox precious metal recovery testing conducted byMaelgwyn demonstrates that significant increases up to 65% gold and 81% silver are possible at Campo Morado, states Antonio Berlanga, Telsons CEO. Should additional planned Leachox testing of optimization work to confirm recoveries, ultimate best grind size and reagent additions show a path forward to a commercial installation of this technology, we could improve recoveries from current levels of gold at 15-20% and silver 30-40%, which would significantly increase the mines profitability by increasing the ounces of gold and silver produced at Campo Morado.

Bradford Cooke, CEO and Director, commented, We are pleased to announce that the El Compas mine and plant have operated smoothly at above 80% of design capacity since mid-February. The start-up issues we experienced have all been resolved, we now have a spare mill trunnion on site, and our focus has moved to optimizing the production tonnes, grades and recoveries.

ZL Managing Director Brad Marwood said, The opportunity to replace the Grupo Mexico contract with a longer-term contract with improved conditions has been an opportunity that delivers process certainty for the next 18 months. I am very pleased that our Mexican team have secured this opportunity in such a timely manner.

For 2019, First Majestic is planning to invest a total of $26.2 million towards exploration to drill approximately 188,000 metres across its core Mexican assets. The 2019 drilling program will consist of approximately 11,600 metres of sustaining diamond drilling to support mining activities at the six operating mines; approximately 152,000 metres of expansionary diamond drilling intended to improve confidence and increase Mineral Resources with a focus on the Santa Elena Main Vein and the Central Block at San Dimas; and drill approximately 8,400 metres intended to test greenfield targets at Santa Elena and Del Toro. Furthermore, due to the exploration success in 2018 at Ermitaño, the Company is planning to complete a 16,000 metre drill program in 2019 to investigate the continuity of mineralization at shallow depths that may be amenable to open pit extraction.

This is an exciting development for the Pino de Plata project, stated Karl Boltz, the Company’s CEO. Field observations and historical data indicate that areas no focussed on during the preparation of the NI 43-101 report merit detailed field work and sampling prior to final selection of drill hole collar locations.