Minera Florida Limitada (Chile)

Minera Florida Limitada is a mining company located in Melipilla, Chile. The company operates the Minera Florida mine, which produces gold, silver, and zinc. The mine is situated 73 km south of Santiago in the central zone of Chile. Mining activity has been present in this area for over 100 years, and Minera Florida has been operating successfully for more than 20 years. The company obtains 100% of its mineral from underground operations. The mining process includes three stages of crushing, one stage of grinding, flotation followed by leaching of the flotation concentrates, and production of gold/silver through electrowinning. The leached flotation is filtered and then treated in a flotation circuit to produce zinc concentrate as a byproduct. The mineral is processed at a rate of 2,400 tons per day in the flotation plant using the Merrill-Crowe process. In 2010, a rich vein was discovered in the Victoria sector, adding to previous exploration successes and increasing mineral resources. The company is also working on the reprocessing of tailings. This project aimed to increase gold production by 30,000 ounces per year, starting in 2013. The tailings reprocessing project reached its design capacity in early that same year. It is projected that the additional production capacity from the tailings will help reduce the average operation costs since there are no mining costs associated with tailings reprocessing. In 2013, the company announced a cost reduction plan that it expected to fully implement before refocusing on production growth objectives. As of September 2013, the company completed 19,282 meters of drilling distributed in 116 drill holes. Due to the positive results achieved in this exploration program, Minera Florida is reallocating some funds to cover the costs of the program. The exploration work has focused on targets located around Mina Este, including the Lisset Vein, and the mineralized targets, Mineralized Triangle, and Tribuna-Victoria. The most promising results were obtained in the Lisset Vein, as the company intercepted high equivalent gold values. Recently, the work has focused on test drilling of a nearby structural mine system near the La Flor target. The proven and probable gold reserves at Minera Florida are estimated at 623,000 ounces, with measured and indicated reserves at 759,000 ounces. Additionally, the proven and probable silver reserves are estimated at 4.2 million ounces, with measured and indicated reserves at 6.0 million ounces. The mine's estimated lifespan is 10 years.