Espanol
El Castillo Gold Mine
The El Castillo mine is located in the state of Durango, Mexico approximately 100 km north of the city of Durango.
| Ownership: |  |
Argonaut Gold Inc. holds a 100% interest |
| Location: | Sate of Durango, Mexico | |
| Size: | 1385 hectares of mining concessions |
Access to the property is excellent by paved and well maintained gravel roads. Topography is relative flat with low lying hills and elevations not exceeding 1800 meters. The environment is classified as semi-dry with annual rainfall of 550 millimeters per year and the climate is temperate with annual temperatures ranging from 2° C to 35° Celsius. Vegetation consists of small tress, bushes, and cacti.
There are approximately 1385 hectares of minerals concessions and surface rights. El Castillo was a grass roots discovery resulting from a regional exploration drilling program by Battle Mountain Gold during 1995 through 1998. Morgain Minerals conducted a program in 2006 and Castle followed with a program in 2009.
El Castillo is an open pit/heap leach operation. The mine commenced construction and operations in 2007 with commercial production reported in 2008. Mining and crushing operations are contracted and supervised by El Castillo employees. A higher grade fraction of ore, approximately 20-40% of the total ore tonnes mined, in seperated and sized to 3/4 inch minus.Currently there are 115 full-time Minera Real del Oro and 369 contract employees at El Castillo.
During 2010, Argonaut had significant growth. With a $15 million investment in the infrastructure of the property, the production profile was brought up to a 72,000 ounce run rate by Q4 2010, within just 1 year of acquiring ownership of the company. A $5 million investment in drilling at the property increased from the resource from less than 600,000 ounces remaining to 1,730,000 ounces.