Hi John!
By the compliant definition of reserves, IPT probably only has a tens of thousands of tons, pretty much what is in the current stopes they are working. That is just because the ore body is confined to narrow, high grade veins that must be proven off with a very tight drill density to qualify as a reserve. That kind of work is counter-productive for IPT, since it costs so much to keep the drills turning and the time is better spent with exploration drilling. The company has hit silver in every drill hole they have punched in 2 separate programs. None of that qualifies for a reserve, and even a resource is hard to prove based on the info from the drilling since you need at least 2 pierce points on the vein every 100m as a minimum spacing, laterally and to depth.
But what the drilling does establish is that the mineralization is prolific, and they can advance the decline ramp to reach all the new veins they have outlined and keep the production running.
The mines have been running for hundreds of years at Zacualpan, and there are over 100 historic producers on the property area they control. Each of those old mines was only exploited for the highest grade ore, and to shallow depth, so it is reasonable to expect quite a bit more resources remain. I do not think that maintaining a supply of production ore is going to be a problem for IPT.
When they inherited the producing mines, very little underground development had been completed for a long time. The company is now working to improve the workings so that production can be increased efficiently, by opening several stopes, and drifting to stay ahead of production. They also plan to open access points to the parallel vein system they found a couple hundred meters laterally beside the current workings. That will allow them to increase the flow of ore to the mills, increase revenues, and fund the ongoing exploration and development to develop other ore shoots.
I think they have a working business model, and the lack of a published reserve should not represent a big issue for the company.
cheers!
COACH247 |
