Magna Gold (TSXV: MGR; US-OTC: MGLQF) has declared commercial production at its 100%-owned San Francisco gold mine in Sonora, Mexico. That puts the company on track to meet its 2021 guidance of 55,000 to 65,000 oz. gold.
The mine will produce approximately 6,000 oz. gold per month in the third quarter and 7,500 oz. per month in the fourth quarter.
To achieve commercial production, Magna completed pre-stripping the mine to give it a 2.9:1 strip ratio, and that number is expected to trend downwards through the mine life. New leach pads were built, and fresh ore is being stacked at a rate of 900 tonnes per hour. The grind size and leach kinetics have been optimized to improve recovery rates to about 70%. The project achieved over 3.5 million person-hours without a lost-time incident.
The prefeasibility study done last year estimated the San Francisco mine has measured and indicated resources of 99.7 million tonnes grading 0.45 grams gold per tonne, containing 1.4 million oz., and inferred resources of 11.4 million tonnes at 0.45 grams gold per tonne, containing 171,000 ounces.