Durango has one of the largest gold and silver deposits in the country, and it is also underexploited, although a Canadian company has already been working on this project since 2020.

He is known as the Metates Project and is located in the state of Durango, 175 kilometers northeast of Mazatlán. The property includes 12 mining concessionswhich totals 14,727 hectares, according to the project description.

According to Mining México, the digital platform specializing in the mining sector, this deposit It is hosted in Mesozoic sedimentary rocks. Gold and silver mineralization occurs as veins and disseminations of sulfides in intrusive and sedimentary host rocks.

According to this digital platform, the project plans an investment of more than three million dollars. It is estimated that there are proven and probable reserves of 18.5 million ounces of gold.

The company that owns the 100 percent rights to the project This is the Canadian company Chesapeake Gold Corp, of which Jean-Paul Tsotsos, interim CEO, confirmed last Thursday October 24 that it had achieved high gold recovery rates thanks to metallurgical tests at Metates.

“We are pleased to announce that metallurgical testing has achieved gold recovery rates in excess of 70 percent, verifying that our proprietary oxidative leaching technology is working as intended,” he said. .

“These test results will serve as the basis for a Metates pre-feasibility study (PFS)”underlined Jean-Paul on the company page.

In May this year, the Canadian company acquired technology patents and other intellectual property rights for leaching technology that it will use in the Metates project.

Durango and its deposits

The Durango mineral deposits are located in 23 mining regions. According to the Mexican Chamber of Mines (Caimex), the region of Cuencamé is one of the most important of the country in zinc production. Among precious metals, the municipalities of San Dimas And Santiago Papasquiaro They occupy important places nationally in the production of gold and silver, respectively, alongside San Juan del Rio.

In recent years, companies such as Grupo Acerero del Norte, Minera Mexicana La Ciénega de Nuestra Señora, Peñoles, Bacís, El Rosario, Fresnillo, and First Majestic have led mining operations in the state.