The Guanajuato silver-gold mines are underground operations using primarily cut-and-fill mining methods. The ore is processed to produce high quality, precious metal-rich concentrate, which is transported to smelters in Mexico and Europe, for extraction of silver and gold.
Silver and gold production for 2012 totaled 1,004,331 oz Ag and 10,350 oz Au.
| GUANAJUATO |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
| Tonnes ore milled (000's) |
155 |
139 |
144 |
169
|
174 |
| Ore silver grade (g/t) |
203 |
275 |
249 |
199 |
199 |
| Ore gold grade (g/t) |
1.4 |
1.8 |
1.6 |
1.5
|
2.0 |
| Plant Silver Recovery (%) |
83.7 |
82.6 |
88.4 |
88.5
|
90 |
| Plant Gold Recovery (%) |
78.6 |
86.4 |
88.7 |
90.3
|
92 |
| Metal Production, (000's) (Ag Eq oz)x |
1,122 |
1,541 |
1,434 |
1,410
|
1,625 |
| Silver Production, (000's) (oz) |
848 |
1,020 |
1,020 |
959.5 |
1,004 |
| Gold Production (oz) |
5,488 |
6,748 |
6,619 |
7,515 |
10,350 |
| Cash Cost / Ag oz (US$)xx |
10.13 |
4.68 |
6.61 |
8.15 |
7.47 |
x Metal Production is expressed in terms of silver equivalent ounces, (Ag Eq oz), the formula for which depends on the gold and silver metal prices used in each year and hence are only indicative.
xxCash cost per ounce of silver is a non-IFRS measure used by the Company to manage and evaluate operating performance at each of the Company's mines. It comprises the cost of production, cost of concentrate transportation and the cost of smelter and refining charges, net of the credit from the sale. Refer to the "Non-IFRS Measures" in our MD&A.
Mining
The Guanajuato silver-gold mines are underground operations using primarily cut-and-fill mining methods. The ore is processed to produce a high quality, precious metal-rich concentrate.
The Processing Plant is located near the central Cata shaft. It consists of a 3-stage crushing section, producing a (¼ in.) fine ore mill feed; a grinding section, consisting of three ball mills operated in parallel and a conventional flotation circuit with a total capacity of 1,200 tonnes per day.
The San Ignacio Project (“San Ignacio”) covers approximately four kilometres of strike length on the La Luz vein system, which is parallel to, and five kilometres west of the principal Veta Madre structure that hosts Great Panther Silver's Guanajuato Mine Complex.
Great Panther Silver began actively exploring the San Ignacio Project in 2010 and initiated a diamond drilling program in October of that year, discovering new silver-gold zones with the first drill hole. An updated NI 43-101 compliant Mineral Resource Estimate was released in May 2012 (see Company news release of May 9, 2012) resulting in an Inferred Mineral Resource at San Ignacio of 6,894,000 Ag eq oz in 826,000 tonnes at 121g/t Ag and 2.28g/t Au.