Silvercorp Metals has confirmed plans to construct a new 3,000-tonne-per-day flotation mill and tailings storage facility near its existing No. 2 mill in the Ying Mining District, China.

The work, through its 77.5%-owned Henan Found Mining arm, will include a gold gravity separation circuit and will be designed to produce silver-lead, zinc and copper concentrates. 

The TSF may be constructed in two phases, with phase one offering approximately 10.2 million cubic metres of storage capacity, and approximately 8.9 million cubic metres of capacity in Phase two – a total storage capacity of 19.1 million cubic metres. 

Silvercorp said construction of the mill will be completed by the end of 2023, and Phase 1 of the TSF by mid-2024.

The company has already inked design contracts with Chinese engineering firm Changchun Gold Design Institute to design the mill and the TSF at the Henan province site.

The preliminary construction budget, including the land usage rights, is estimated at about US$25 million for the mill and US$38 million for the TSF.

“The rationale for building the new mill and TSF is to provide the company with additional capacity to continue growing its existing mining operations at the Ying Mining District in light of recent successful drilling programs that have discovered new resources, to process ore from its recent acquisitions, and for potential consolidation of other nearby projects,” Canadian-based Silvercorp said. 

“Once the new mill is completed, the company will decommission its No. 1 mill to have approximately 5,000 tonnes per day of milling capacity. A new facility comprising a training and R&D centre has been planned at the site of the No. 1 mill.”

Source: Silvercorp Metals