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Australian junior miner Alcyone Resources has poured its first silver bullion from its 100%-owned Texas silver and polymetallic project, in south-east Queensland.
In early April this year, Alcyone started re-irrigating the existing silver-rich heaps at the Twin Hills mine, which forms part of the Texas project, to demonstrate the viability of the leaching process before moving to a full-scale commercial silver production.
The silver-rich solutions from the leach pads was processed using the pilot scale Merrill Crowe circuit at site, which Alcyone said on Thursday confirmed the viability of the proposed long-term process flow sheet.
The first batch of Silver rich precipitate was then treated off-site with the first silver bullion poured on 15 June. While this bullion still has to undergo final refining, it has been estimated that it will deliver more than 15,000oz of silver.
Alcyone Resources’ Managing Director, Andrew King said: “This is a wonderful achievement for the Alcyone team, who have successfully brought the Twin Hills Project into early production just 18 months after first making the acquisition. The re-irrigation of the existing silver heaps at Twin Hills provided us with an excellent opportunity to validate the proposed leaching process while also allowing the Company to capitalise on the current strong silver price. With the silver price currently sitting comfortably above A$30 per ounce, and our unit cash operating costs forecast at approximately A$15/oz, the Twin Hills operation should be capable of generating a strong cash margin as we move towards full scale mining operations later this year.”
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