HISTORICAL PRODUCTION

Between 1937 and 1943, Compañia Minera Guazapares, S.A., produced gold and silver from the Carmen and Los Hilos structures. Production was from narrow (1 to 2 metre wide) tunnels dug at several levels into the Carmen shear and its associated splay structures. By today’s standards cut-off grade at 15 grams of gold per tonne was very high. Mill capacity at 25 tonnes per day prevented economies of scale which would have allowed a lower cut-off grade.

Development was by following structures. No drills were used.

Reported production from the six years of operation were 1,311,720 grams of gold and 21,182,000 grams of silver at an average grade of 19.29 g/t gold and 311.5 g/t silver. A total of 68,000 tonnes of ore were reported to have been mined.

A map of the old workings above shows the tunnels at various levels along the Carmen shear.