Compañia de Minas Buenaventura (Buenaventura) has announced the submission of the updated mine plan for its fully owned Uchucchacua silver, lead, and zinc mine in Peru to the country’s Ministry of Energy and Mines.
The Peruvian precious metals mining company said that the submission completes the necessary process for restarting activities at the Uchucchacua mine from next month.
Since October 2021, the mining and ore processing works at the Peruvian mine have been temporarily suspended to allow the company to meaningfully enhance efficiency and profitability.
Currently, the company aims to initiate the required maintenance work and commission the processing plant next month. These will ensure the operational readiness of the processing plant to receive ore from Uchucchacua and Yumpag, said Buenaventura.
Besides, Buenaventura plans to commence the treatment of ore at the Uchucchacua processing plant in the latter half of September. The company will target stable ongoing 2,600 tons per day production, which will then be sustained.
Located in the Region of Lima, the Uchucchacua mine is an underground operation that began operations in 1975.
The restart of the Uchucchacua processing plant activities will allow the company to undertake metallurgical tests of up to 124,600 tons of ore from the pilot stope of the Yumpag project.
Yumpag is a silver project located in the Region of Pasco.
For the full year 2023, the Uchucchacua mine and the Yumpag project, are expected to produce 2.3 million-2.8 million ounces of silver.
Buenaventura anticipates receiving the environmental impact assessment (EIAd) for the operations at the Yumpag project by the end of Q3 2023.
Once approved, the mining company will submit a request to the Ministry of Energy and Mines for authorisation to begin mining activities at the Yumpag project.
