USAC moves forward with Mexico operation
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December 14, 2017
Courtesy photo
PROMISING ROCK – U.S. Antimony Corporation received approval to move forward with cyanide leaching operations at their Los Juarez deposit in Queretaro, Mexico. After many years, U.S. Antimony hopes to recover 90 percent of the gold and silver from the tailings of open-pit gold, silver and antimony deposits. Pictured above, a worker samples and x-rays the deposit to determine presence of metals.
After years of waiting, Thompson Falls' U.S. Antimony Corporation's (USAC) subsidiary company, USAMSA, recently announced they received approval to move forward with a cyanide leach plant operation in Mexico. The plant is designed to remove gold and silver from the Los Juarez gold-silver-antimony tailings deposit in Queretaro, Mexico.
The Mexican Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), equivalent to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has issued USAC a permit allowing for cyanide application in recovery of gold and silver from the pilot flotation mill tailings. The open-pit gold, silver and antimony deposit is over 2.2 miles long and over half a mile wide.
John Lawrence, Thompson Falls resident and CEO of USAC commented, "We are excited about receiving the cyanide leach permit for the Los Juarez gold-silver-antimony deposit. The pilot plant will establish major gold and silver production for USAC and pave the way for the mill expansion. We intend to fund the construction of the cyanide leach plant from cash flow and to ramp up pilot production in 2018. We continue to evaluate several financial opportunities presented to the company that do not involve dilution of any kind. We will keep you advised on these opportunities."
According to USAC, there was a problem recovering all the gold and silver from the mill tailings. Only 30 to 50 percent of the gold was recovered, and 60 to 80 percent of the silver. With application of cyanide leaching practices, these values increased. USAC now estimates recovery to reach the 90 percent mark.
USAC is moving forward with the construction phase. Locally, in Thompson Falls, leach plant materials and equipment are currently being fabricated to furnish the Mexican plant in the near future. Provisions include plastic liners which will be positioned in the tailings pond and a leach plant building.
Los Juarez is known for having metallurgical (technique set in place to separate metals) problems. Throughout history, two other major companies owned the plant but were unsuccessful in solving this issue. USAC has solved this problem by added an alkaline leach circuit to ease problems associated with the extraction process.
USAC currently imports antimony raw materials from Canada. It is reported that antimony, whose byproducts are gold and silver, prices are on the rise (1.5 percent increase at the end of November), and the total of all Thompson Falls raw material supply production in October was 44.4 percent, and 41.8 for November.
Preston, Idaho is home to another USAC owned open-pit operation, which ships 100 to 1500 tons of zeolite per month, according to Lawrence.
USAC was founded in 1969 with interests focused on antimony exploration, development and production and is based in Thompson Falls. When prices fell in 1983, the company started looking to Mexico (where the company worked as a Mexican subsidiary called, USAMSA, and continues today) and Canada for further financial reliability and production. Mexican mining became a strong attribute for USAC in the early 2000s when metal prices rebounded.
More information on USAC and the Los Juarez mining project can be found online at usantimony.com.
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