SILVER NEWS

Kingsgate opens door for Chilean silver mine

A takeover of the Chilean assets of a small Australian firm two years ago has given Kingsgate Consolidated the opportunity of developing another silver mine

Author: Ross Louthean
Posted: Wednesday , 18 Apr 2012

PERTH (MINEWEB) - 

The takeover of a small Australian company with assets in Chile almost two years ago has given Kingsgate Consolidated Ltd (ASX: KCN) the opportunity of developing another silver mine to add to its cash cow - a major gold-copper operation in Thailand.

Kingsgate Consolidated announced today it had its total resource at the Teterita prospect at its Nueva Esperanza project in northern Chile to 5.95 million tonnes grading 89 grams/tonne silver for 17.105 M ounces.

Managing director Gavin Thomas told Mineweb that the project was now awaiting results of an environmental impact study that could see it cleared for development by the end of this year and with first production possible in 2014.

Thomas said it was not just a 30% increase in Tererita's contained silver that was advancing the project but also the fact that a team of local mining specialists who had worked with Thomas in South America in an earlier era, had been attracted to join this development.

Following the upgrade the total Nueva Esperanza project now has a resource of 75.3 M oz silver, 227,000 oz gold, which collectively was the equivalent of 1.9 M oz gold.

Thomas said the upgrade confirms Kingsgate's confidence in the quality and opportunity at Nueva Esperanza and "supports our initial view that the project timeline can be fast-tracked by mining parts of the Arqueros deposit and the Teterita deposit first.

Arqueros was mined as a limited scale underground operation by an earlier operator.

The contiguous properties are in the dry Antacama region in northern Chile.

Kingsgate operates the Chatree gold project in Thailand and has become a role model for other companies taking up prospects in that South East Asian country. It has the Challenger gold mine in South Australia and is advancing plans to develop the Bowdens silver project in New South Wales.