The Huaraz area in northern Peru has a wealth of tailings from historical polymetallic mining and processing activities, which contain variable grades of gold and silver. These present environmental liabilities for owners, but would be redeposited in line with environmental standards. The company has identified an initial seven tailings dumps containing an internally estimated 4.9 Mt of weighted average grades of 1.22g/t Au and 34.46g/t Ag for a contained estimate of 253.1 oz AuEq.
Highlights:
- First deposit signed up in March 25, containing 1.8Mt of polymetallic material
- Low-cost, low-risk approach, with quick and cheap resource definition and limited capex/opex
- As the mine owners bear the legal liability for these environmental liabilities, Nativo's model removes this burden and shares the Au/Ag upside, aligning incentives between the company and landowners
- The resource definition to FID timeline is compressed compared to those of traditional mining, since processing can begin at La Patona once the plant is operational
- The model is massively scalable with deposits known throughout Peru requiring a cleaning solution