Latin American Minerals Inc. (the "Company") has received an expanded environmental permit authorizing heap-leach gold extraction at its Independencia Mine, part of the Company's Paso Yobai gold project located in Paraguay.
Miles Rideout, President and CEO stated, "The timely receipt of this permit confirms the commitment and support by the local government to advance our landmark project. With plans for immediate construction, the heap leach expansion is a key step to augment cash flow to fund the Company's top focus, drill testing the project's seven additional target areas for high grade feeder zones."
The Company is initially planning construction of four heap-leach pads with 18,000 tonnes total capacity. Current assayed stockpiles total 140,000 tonnes at 0.6 - 0.8 g/t gold, sufficient for 18 months of heap leach operation. Ongoing pit extraction is expected to replenish existing stockpiles.
The anticipated heap-leach circuit will operate concurrently with the high-grade bulk sampling concentrator plant and is expected to supplement existing cash flow. The Company observes that an independent feasibility study has not been completed and is required to advise the reader that there is no certainty the proposed operations will be economically viable.
Open pit operations began at Paso Yobai in February 2012 with the goal of exposing, mapping and sampling 2,700 metres of vein-hosted gold mineralization within the Independencia Mine land concession. Trenching and drilling along the mineralized shoots have confirmed high-grade gold mineralization from near surface to depths exceeding 150 metres. As part of this exploration strategy, the high-grade vein material has been processed through the on-site gravity concentrator plant and the enveloping lower grade material has been assayed and stockpiled in preparation for low-cost heap leach processing.
About the Company:
Latin American Minerals Inc. is a mineral exploration company with its flagship Paso Yobai property located in eastern Paraguay, an emerging gold region. Paso Yobai hosts a large epithermal gold footprint on two parallel gold trends, namely the 10 km Discovery Trend and 14.8 km X-Mile Trend.
The Company holds a 100% interest in an on-site concentrator plant (mill) at the fully permitted Independencia Mine at Paso Yobai. In operation since 2012, the plant continues to provide vital information on the grade, mineralogy and metallurgical characteristics of the Paso Yobai mineralization through self-funded operation.
The Company holds 100% of the adjacent Paso Yobai X-Mile Trend exploration concessions, the present exploration focus. The Company also holds 100% interests in highly prospective diamond, REE, niobium and green-fields gold projects in Paraguay and base metals projects in Argentina.
The Company's public documents may be accessed at www.sedar.com.
Source: https://sterlingmetals.ca/