PROJECT UPDATE: Trevali Now Producing Concentrate at Santander Mine

Zinc-focused base metals miner Trevali Mining (TSX:TV,OTCQX:TREVF) has released a slew of news these past few months, mostly related to its Santander zinc-lead–silver mine in Peru. Last week was no different — ending the summer on a strong note, the company put out its most exciting news yet.

The company announced on August 15 that it has begun producing zinc and lead-silver concentrate from the metallurgical plant at Santander. Its press release notes that the crushing, transfer, grinding, flotation and tailings circuits are all “operational and undergoing commissioning and optimization” and that during day shifts, the mill is processing stockpiled mineralized feed. During night shifts, the plant is fine tuned and reagent schemes and run criteria are optimized as required.

At the moment, Trevali has 156,945 tonnes of mineralized material grading 4.9-percent zinc, 1.2-percent lead, 0.22-percent copper and 1.5 ounces per tonne silver available for commissioning.

Dr. Mark Cruise, president and CEO of Trevali, commented positively on the news, stating, “[c]ommencing metal concentrate production from our Santander Mine is a major achievement for Trevali. We now aim to ramp-up operations to the planned 2,000-tonne-per-day throughput. This milestone is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the Trevali-Glencore construction teams as well as our contract partners that continue to play a vital role in our success.”

Santander is wholly controlled by Trevali, but Glencore Xstrata (LSE:GLEN) is the company’s development partner; the mining giant provided the 2,000-tonne-per-day mill/concentrate plant and will also operate the mill and contract mining for Trevali. Glencore Xstrata has a life-of-mine concentrate offtake agreement for all of Santander’s production, according to Trevali’s website.

What about Caribou?

Trevali has focused heavily on Santander this summer, but that doesn’t mean its New Brunswick-based Caribou mine and concentrate plant, located in the Bathurst Mining Camp, has been forgotten.

Since receiving an operations permit for Caribou back in May, Trevali has closed a $10.9-million bought-deal private placement, the proceeds of which it will use to advance operations at both Caribou and Santander. Though some believe the zinc market will have difficulties supporting these — and other — new zinc mines, Trevali is of the opinion that recent and upcoming major zinc mine closures will positively impact its operations.

Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure: Trevali Mining is a client of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.

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