High Zinc Grades, Near Surface<\/strong><\/p>\nBongar\u00e1 is a past-producing zinc mine that was in operation from 2007\u20132008 but was shut down due to low zinc prices.<\/p>\n
Zinc One\u2019s management team is level-set on getting the mine back into production in the next two years.<\/p>\n
To that end, the company recently embarked on a drilling program to bring the resource-hosting portions of Bongar\u00e1 up to NI 43-101 compliance standards. In doing so, it also hopes to outline about 1.5 million to 2 million tonnes of high-grade material.<\/p>\n
Zinc One\u2019s President and CEO Jim Walchuck notes, \u201cThat size would give Bongar\u00e1 a seven- to nine-year mine life. If we can get that tonnage at 21 per cent zinc, that equates to 50,000 tonnes of concentrate per year.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a solid annual rate of production, one that owes to those very high zinc grades. Adds Walchuck, \u201cBecause of the high grades involved, you don\u2019t have to mine a lot get a lot of zinc.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Safe Mining Jurisdiction<\/strong><\/p>\nAdding to Bongar\u00e1\u2019s allure is its location in Peru \u2014 one of the world\u2019s leading mining jurisdictions.<\/p>\n
Peru has a steadily growing economy that is largely driven by its mining endowment. The country has an attractive legal and tax regime, and a foreign investment law that guarantees the security of foreign and domestic investments.<\/p>\n
Canada and Peru have over 50 years of history collaborating on mineral projects. Peru is the world\u2019s third largest producer of zinc, its third largest producer of copper, and its sixth largest producer of gold.<\/p>\n
In addition, the communities around the Bongar\u00e1 project have had the experience of seeing a mine built, closed, and remediated, so they are supportive of a potential re-opening of a mine in the vicinity.<\/p>\n
An Environmentally Friendly Processing Method<\/strong><\/p>\nThat enthusiasm will no doubt be enhanced by Zinc One\u2019s decision to pursue a coal-fired Waelz kiln technology to process the ore from the mine.<\/p>\n
Walchuck says, \u201cWith a Waelz kiln, the heat for the process comes from anthracite coal, which we\u2019ve already identified a source of on the way from the mine to the port at Salaverry. The idea is to send concentrate down to the port and then pick up coal for the kiln on the way back up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taking that route for production should help keep initial capital expenditures at Bongar\u00e1 low. With zinc recoveries approaching 95 per cent and the leftover slag likely a dormant product re-usable as paving material, this technology will be low cost with minimal environmental impact.<\/p>\n
Moving Rapidly Toward a PEA<\/strong><\/p>\nThe current drilling program is already generating strong results.<\/p>\n
The project has completed over 1,100 metres of drilling on the Mina Grande Sur and Bongarita targets. Program-best zinc grades from that effort have ranged between 16.0 per cent and 43.6 per cent.<\/p>\n
Plus, the best results released so far from this program have come at or near the surface. These results should help Zinc One in its goal of outlining a compliant (and potentially profitable) resource on Bongar\u00e1.<\/p>\n
According to Walchuck, that study should come out toward the end of the company\u2019s second quarter or sometime in its third quarter. He adds, \u201cNext, we\u2019ll produce a preliminary economic assessment that should show Bongar\u00e1 to be economically viable. From that point, we\u2019ll either drill more or, potentially, go straight to feasibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s goal is to turn the project into a cash flow generator as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s the longer-term potential of Zinc One Resources Inc.<\/a>\u2019s (TSXV: Z) Charlotte-Bongar\u00e1 property, which lies six kilometres northwest of current drilling. That area has also demonstrated high zinc values and could be part of a later phase of drilling to add tonnage to the operation at Bongar\u00e1.<\/p>\n\u201cAll Four Legs of the Chair\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nIn describing the chances that Bongar\u00e1 will again become a working zinc mine, Jim Walchuck relates a viable mining project to a chair.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are four legs on the chair, and you need to have all four. The first leg is: are you in a good jurisdiction? The next is: do you have a technically viable project? The third leg is: are there any environmental issues? And the fourth is: is the community on board? In my opinion, Bongar\u00e1 checks all the marks.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was provided by Market One Media Group for commercial purposes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zinc One Resources looks to capitalize with a high-grade zinc project in Peru<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7182"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7183,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7182\/revisions\/7183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}