Silvercorp Metals Corp has provided updates on the construction plan and highlighted steady progress on its new flotation mill and tailings storage facility (TSF) at Henan Province in China.
On November 16, 2021, the Vancouver, British Columbia-based mining company unveiled plans which showed it had started the process to build a 3,000-tonne per day flotation mill and tailings storage facility beside an existing mill presently operating at the Ying Mining District.
Silvercorp has since made progress in several areas. The company said agreements to lease 123.46 hectares of land have been negotiated with the local community; the environmental assessment report and safety assessment report for the TSF have been completed and filed with the local county government, and the reports for the new mill have been drafted and are to be finalized pending completion of the preliminary engineering design of the new mill.
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In addition, the firm said seven drill rigs are currently on site and 1,738 metres (m) of 3,300m of foundation engineering survey drilling have been completed; and contractor selection to construct 5 drain tunnels at the TSF has been initiated.
The updated budget is estimated to be approximately US$29.8 million for the new mill and US$38 million for the TSF.
The new mill will be equipped with a Knelson gold gravity separation circuit and designed to produce silver-lead, zinc, copper, and gold concentrates. The TSF may be constructed in two phases, with approximately 10.2 million cubic metres of storage capacity in Phase 1, and approximately 8.9 million cubic metres of capacity in Phase 2, for a total storage capacity of 19.1 million cubic metres.
Silvercorp expects construction of the new mill to be completed by the end of 2023, and Phase 1 of the TSF by the end of 2024.
The new mill and TSF are being constructed to provide the company with additional capacity to continue growing its existing flagship Ying mining operations considering recent successful drilling programs that have discovered new resources, to process ore from recent acquisitions, and for potential consolidation of other nearby projects.
Once the new mill is completed, the Silvercorp will decommission its No. 1 mill to have approximately 5,000 tonnes per day of milling capacity. A new training facility and research and development centre are planned at the No. 1 mill site, said the company.
Silvercorp is a profitable Canadian mining company producing silver, lead, and zinc metals in concentrates from mines in China. The company has six mines that make up its flagship Ying project.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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