Endeavour Silver has received the final tailings permit for its Terronera silver-gold mine project in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
The Terronera deposit is situated on the north-west side of Jalisco, near the town of San Sebastian, approximately 40km north-east of Puerto Vallarta.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The property comprises 21 mineral concessions spread over 16,691ha. It is located within the Sierra Madre volcanic belt, which hosts the majority of Mexico’s gold and silver deposits.
Mexican environmental permitting authority SEMARNAT issued the extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) permit for the Terronera project. It allows Endeavour Silver to store tailings from the proposed Terronera high grade, underground, silver-gold mine in a filtered dry stack tailings facility, next to the proposed plant site.
Filtered dry stack tailings are considered to be the best practice as tailings are filtered to recycle the water back to the plant site before piling them behind a storage dam.
Dry stack tailings are safer, easy to store, and more expensive to build and operate when compared with conventional wet tailings facilities.
The company intends to complete a final improved pre-feasibility study (PFS) in the third quarter of this year. It also plans to arrange appropriate financing to build its next prime asset.
Once operational, the Terronera mine is expected to produce nearly five million ounces of silver equivalents at an 80:1 silver:gold ratio, over an anticipated mine life of 12 years.
Vancouver-based precious metals mining company Endeavour Silver owns and operates four high-grade, underground, silver-gold mines in Mexico.
