First Majestic Silver inaugurates La Parilla flotation plant

First Majestic Silver Corp. (AG: NYSE; FR: TSX) has announced that the new La Parrilla flotation/cyanidation plant was inaugurated in a ceremony at the La Parrilla Silver Mine in the State of Durango, Mexico on January 19, 2012, in which approximately 150 people attended including several Mexican Federal, State and Municipal authorities.

The Federal Government was represented by the Lic. Jimena Valverde Valdez, General Coordinator of Mining for the Secretary of the Economy while the State of Durango was represented by Ing. Hector Vela Valenzuela, Secretary General of the Governor of Durango, both of whom declared the new plant as officially open.

The new La Parrilla dual processing plant has a total capacity of 2,000 tpd (1,000 tpd in the flotation circuit and 1,000 tpd in the cyanidation circuit) and is anticipated to be operating at full capacity in February 2012. Currently the mill is operating at 1,500 tpd (1,000 in flotation and 500 tpd in cyanidation).

The final components of the plant to be installed are the tailings filters, which will allow for the recirculation and recovery of 80% of the water used in the process. These filters are expected to be fully operational by the end February 2012. Also the dust collection system and new induction furnaces are expected to be fully operational by the end of January 2012.

As previously announced in September 2011, the flotation circuit has been operating since September 1, 2011, and reached commercial production of 1,000 tpd on October 1, 2011. The new 1,000 tpd cyanidation circuit was slightly delayed due to the late delivery of components and delays by the Mexican power authorities in hooking up the new 115,000 Kilovolt power line which was eventually connected on January 18, 2012.

Once completed, annual production is estimated to be approximately 3.0 million ounces of pure silver, 6.0 million pounds of Lead and 4.3 million pounds of zinc. The total investment to the end of 2011 was US$35.0 million inclusive of mine development. The remaining balance of the US$40.5 million budget is being expended in 2012.

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Tags: First Majestic Silver, Silver, silver mining, silver mining companies, silver mining industry

Posted by Silver Guru on Jan 25 2012. Filed under Silver mining. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry