Zincore starts Accha mine design

Now that Zincore Metals (ZNC-T, ZCRMF-O) has a resource estimate for its Accha zinc oxide deposit in southern Peru, the company has moved straight into prefeasibility study mode.

With an indicated resource of 911 million lbs. zinc, Zincore hopes to eventually produce 35,000 to 40,000 tonnes of zinc-in-concentrate a year from an open-pit operation.

“What we are looking at is a prefeasibility study on Accha as a standalone project,” says Zincore vice-president and chief financial officer Greg Martin.

The company has developed a concentration process that starts with dense media separation (DMS) followed by flotation of zinc oxide minerals.

“There are no other operations that we are aware of combining dense media separation and flotation,” Martin says.

However, he says there are zinc oxide operations using flotation, as well as other operations that use DMS.

“It’s just a combination of two fairly well-proven technologies,” he notes.

Mine design for Accha has already begun — the prefeasibility study is expected to be ready by the end of the first quarter.

“But we’re still continuing to work on an integrated zinc project that would have feed from a number of deposits,” Martin says.

While Zincore makes plans to expand Accha next year through drilling, the company is drilling at the nearby Yanque deposit and plans to begin a regional exploration program on 40 concessions between the two.

The Yanque deposit, 30 km south of Accha, has an inferred resource of 6.6 million tonnes grading 5.3% zinc and 3.5% lead.

The Accha resource was based on 62 diamond-drill holes totalling 16,000 metres, plus 60 historical drill holes totalling 13,000 metres and 7 trenches.

“There were a couple of historic resource estimates that had been done and our efforts had been focused on confirming that and increasing it,” Martin says. “We increased indicated tonnes by thirty-five per cent, so it was certainly in line and as you can see, it’s a very high-grade zinc deposit.”

Using a cutoff grade of 2% zinc, the current indicated resource for Accha is 5.1 million tonnes grading 8.15% zinc and 0.9% lead, totalling 911 million lbs. zinc and 97 million lbs. lead.

Under the inferred category, Accha has a resource of 1.4 million tonnes grading 5.9% zinc and 0.7% lead, or 186 million lbs. zinc and 21 million lbs. lead.

Accha has a 750-metre strike length with mineralization extending from surface to 450 metres depth and is hosted in laminated limestone.

Currently, Zincore is working on additional surface exploration and mapping of the Accha area to find targets for the next phase of infill and exploration drilling, which will start by mid-year.