Following a review, Santacruz said it would suspend Veta Grande in Zacatecas to allow for upgrades to the plant and new tailings storage facility.

 

Santacruz said it expected to offset by 70% the Veta Grande production by the end of May, as it kept increasing mill throughput at the Zimapan and its Rosario mines.

The company's silver-equivalent production increased 346% from 2018 to 2.8 million ounces in 2019, due to its acquisition last year of private company Carrizal Mining which has the rights to operate Zimapan until December 31.

Zimapan produced 1.6Moz Ag-eq for Santacruz in 2019, compared with Veta Grande's 761,262oz Ag-eq and Rosario's 465,576oz.

COO Carlos Silva said some of the upgrades to the crushing plant, flotation circuits and ball mills at Veta Grande were already in progress.

"While we are continuing with the geotechnical evaluations and assessments of the remaining capacity at the existing TSF, we have made the decision to suspend processing at Veta Grande," he said.

"This will provide the opportunity to safely engage in improvements at the processing plant concurrent with the construction of the new TSF while continuing with mine and resource development."

The company last month closed the first tranche of a placement designed to raise C$3 million for general working capital and corporate purposes, garnering $734,150 from the issue of units priced at 12c.

Santacruz shares have ranged from 5-21c over the past year and were unchanged yesterday at 9c, to capitalise it at $18.4 million (US$13.4 million).