Processing

Peruvian Metals holds an 80% ownership interest in Minera Aguila de Oro SAC, which operates the Aguila Norte plant. The plant is near to Trujillo, Peru’s 2nd largest city in the northern part of the country, located off the Pan-American highway.

The plant was constructed with an investment of over $1.5 million and is part of Peru’s formalization process for small-scale mining operations. The plant has fully tested crushing, milling, and flotation circuits, and initial production started in early 2017. Peruvian Metals views this initiative into mineral processing as a solid step toward establishing a sustainable business model that will complement its exploration expertise and portfolio of mineral assets.
During 2023, the Plant processed a yearly record of 30,199 tonnes of wholly owned and third-party mineral compared with 29,667 tonnes in 2022 and 28,654 tonnes in 2021. This represents a progressive increase year over year at Aguila Norte. The company’s mineral processing ratio is currently 4:1 providing clients with high-quality concentrates and optimizing margins.

Highlights of the mineral processing plant are:

• All-in plant construction, start-up and commissioning costs of approximately $4.4 million, including fully tested crushing, milling and flotation circuits, tailings dams, camp construction for a local workforce of 25 and onsite logistical overheads.
• Metal recovery is via flotation circuits designed to produce up to three distinct concentrates enabling processing of a wider spectrum of multi and poly-metallic sulphide mineral supply. Initial plant throughput is rated at 100 mt (metric tonnes) daily.
• The processing plant has an environmental permit (“IGAC”) from the Peruvian government which provides the Company with the ability to expand operations past the current 100 tonnes per day level.

Peruvian Metals continues to negotiate several mineral purchase agreements for secure sources of mineralized material. The Company eventually intends to focus only on mineral purchase agreements, and processing 100% owned minerals from Peruvian Metals’ concessions. The Company is currently preparing for exploitation permits to extract minerals on certain of its 100% owned concessions like Palta Dorada (put link to Palta Dorada exploration page) and to process this mineral at the Plant or other processing facilities in Peru.