MINING
Golden Arrow/SSR Mining advancing toward
production at Chinchillas
by Ellsworth Dickson
GOLDEN ARROW RESOURCES CORP.
[GRG-TSXV; GARWF-OTCQB; G6A-SE]
and joint venture partner SSR Mining Inc.
[SSRM-TSX, NASDAQ], formerly Silver
Standard Resources, are gradually working
through the Argentine permitting process
to begin production at the Chinchillas
open pit silver mine. It is expected the
exploitation permit will be received in the
near future.
The joint venture, named Puna
Operations Inc., was formed to hold
Golden Arrows Chinchillas Project and
SSRs Pirquitas Project, which consists of
the now closed San Miguel open pit mine
and associated mineral processing and tail-
ings facility in Jujuy Province, northern
Argentina. Puna is 75% owned and oper-
ated by Silver Standard, and 25% owned
by Golden Arrow. The joint venture was
formed in order to mine the Chinchillas
deposit and truck the ore to the Pirquitas
mill for processing.
The Chinchillas silver (lead-zinc) deposit
will be mined by conventional drill, blast,
truck and loading open pit methods. A fleet
of 35-tonne road haul trucks will transport
ore 42 km to the Pirquitas mill. Haul truck,
loading equipment and drills at Pirquitas
will be transferred to Chinchillas. The plan
enables the project to use existing equip-
ment and infrastructure for capital cost
savings and an expected shorter time to
production at the Chinchillas Mine.
Mining the Chinchillas deposit is
expected to supply the Pirquitas opera-
tion with milling ore in the second half of
2018. It is expected that the average annual
silver equivalent production will total 8.4
million ounces over an eight-year mine life
at a production rate of 4,000 tonnes per
day. Golden Arrows 25% share of aver-
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2017
age annual production would equate to
2,100,000 ounces of silver equivalent. This
would represent total attributable after-tax
undiscounted cash flow of US $66.75 mil-
lion, based on a recent prefeasibility study.
Meanwhile, Joseph Grosso, Executive
Chairman, President and CEO of Golden
Arrow, told Resource World that the com-
pany has created a new company for its
Argentine exploration projects that would
be a subsidiary of Golden Arrow named
New Golden Explorations Inc.
One of the New Golden Explorations
projects is the Antofalla silver-gold project
in Catamarca Province where initial results
from soil sampling and surface surveys
have been encouraging. This has prompted
the company to plan a 3,000-metre
drill program for the fourth quarter this
year.
Golden Arrow is also making plans for
an exploration program on its Pescado gold
project located in San Juan Province where
it has two other projects the Mogote
copper-gold project and the Potrerillo
gold-silver project. Other exploration
projects include the Don Bosco and
Caballos copper-gold projects in La Rioja
Province.
Grosso said that Golden Arrow intends
to fund New Golden Explorations initial
working capital by tapping into the ven-
ture capital markets. It is intended that
New Golden Explorations operations will
be self-financing by way of equity financ-
ings, and, possibly, with an initial public
offering in the near future. Golden Arrow
intends to retain a controlling share posi-
tion in New Golden Explorations. n
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