Orla pours first gold at Camino Rojo in Mexico

Orla Mining (TSX: OLA; NYSE: ORLA) has accomplished the first gold pour at its Camino Rojo gold-silver project in Mexico’s Zacatecas state.

The first pour occurred on schedule on December 13 and three bars were poured with a total weight of 1,278 oz. containing approximately 770 oz. of gold and 510 oz. of silver.

“In less than two years, we have permitted, financed, and constructed our first project, while maintaining the health and safety of our workforce,” Jason Simpson, Orla’s president and CEO, stated in a news release.  “This accomplishment is the result of the hard work and diligence of the entire team, and we are incredibly proud.”

Camino Rojo is an open pit and heap leach operation wholly owned by Orla. During November, the company mined a total of 466,215 tonnes of mineralized material at an average grade of 0.65 gram gold per tonne. It crushed and stacked 374,976 tonnes on the leach pad. As of mid-December, 1.6 million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 0.72 gram gold had been mined and 750,564 tonnes stacked.

The project is based on oxide resources, and there is significant sulphide ore potential at depth, the company says. The measured and indicated resources of the oxide portion are 94.6 million tonnes grading 0.71 gram gold per tonne and 12.7 grams silver per tonne for 2.1 million oz. of gold and 38.8 million oz. of silver.

The sulphide resource has 258.8 million measured and indicated tonnes at 0.88 gram gold and 7.4 grams silver for 7.3 million oz. of gold and 61.6 million oz. of silver. The measured and indicated sulphide resource also contains 0.1% lead and 0.3% zinc.

Camino Rojo is Orla’s first producing mine.

The junior also owns the Cerro Quema gold project in Panama.

In a research note, CIBC analyst Bryce Adams said he models production in 2022 of 86,000 oz. of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of US$693 per ounce, and noted he sees the potential for Orla’s shares “to rerate as a small producer in the year ahead.”

Adams has a 12-18 month target price of $7.00 per share. 

At presstime in Toronto, Orla was trading at $5.09 per share within a 52-week trading range of $3.71 and $7.30.