MINING IN MEXICO — Cominco Res. no stranger to Mexico

As an exploration and mining company that operates entirely outside Canada, Cominco Resources International (TSE) was ahead of the pack when Mexico recently opened its doors and made investment in the country’s mining industry a more attractive proposition.

“We’ve been in Mexico for 20 years,” said company spokesman Michael Carr. “And we’re finding that despite the recent increase in activity, the competition for new projects is not tough.”

As a result of their previous activity, Cominco Resources today has a 49% interest in a high-grade copper mine and concentrator adjacent to a paved highway, a few miles from Cananea in northern Mexico.

The deposit was discovered by Cominco Resources’ parent, Cominco (TSE), in 1979 and brought into commercial production in November of 1990. In 1991, this mine produced 138,000 tonnes of ore grading 13% copper, most of which was sold or toll-milled. A $7.1-million concentrator was commissioned late in 1991, when the project’s minable reserves of high-grade ore stood at 330,000 tonnes grading 12.8% copper, 0.25% molybdenum, and 62 grams silver per tonne. The lower grade reserve was reported as a further 390,000 tonnes containing 1.8% copper and 0.67% molybdenum, and the mine is expected to continue production using the lower-grade ore after the high-grade ore is mined out in late 1993.

This year, Cominco Resources began a program to test a number of targets for additional high-grade mineralization. And this fall, the company expects to commission a new molybdenum circuit at its 600-tonne-per-day concentrator. The Maria mine is a profitable operation, and a significant contributor to Cominco Resources’ revenues and cash flow. The company’s share of copper-in-concentrate produced during the first half of this year totalled 9.4 million pounds.

Mexico also features prominently in the list of countries where Cominco Resources is concentrating its exploration activities. The Cananea district of Sonora is being actively explored, and the company has acquired new properties that are considered to have good potential to host both high-grade copper deposits similar to Maria, and porphyry-style copper and gold mineralization.

In June of this year, Cominco Resources began preparations for confirmatory metallurgical testing to provide data for a full feasibility study at its 100% owned Mariquita copper project.

This project is located near the Maria mine, and pre-feasibility studies have the company optimistic the deposit can produce 25 million pounds per year of low-cost cathode copper for about 10 years, using the solvent extraction-electrowinning process.