Mining - Precious Metals
Washington Division’s core strength in contract mining benefits our precious metals clients through efficient and cost-effective mining methods and operations, and positive project economics. We provide process engineering services, crusher and conveyor systems, and mill and refinery facilities. We work with our clients to identify and implement value-engineering opportunities focusing on cost savings, and on improving new or existing plant operations.
Experience Highlights
- San Cristóbal Silver, Lead & Zinc Mine
We are the contractor at the San Cristóbal silver, lead and zinc mine in a remote section of southwestern Bolivia. The San Cristóbal property is considered to be the world’s largest primary silver mine development project. The project for APEX Silver Mines Ltd., is the largest zinc and lead mining project in development today. The site holds approximately 450 million ounces of silver, eight billion pounds of zinc and three billion pounds of lead.
- Cerro San Pedro Silver/Gold Mine
At the Cerro San Pedro Silver/Gold Mine in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, we performed site development and are now providing contract mining services. This operation for Minera San Xavier, S.A de C.V. (Metallica Resources Inc.) includes plant site, heap leach pad, site roads, process solution ponds, and pre-production stripping. Our operations for this conventional open pit mine are expected to produce over 17.3 million ounces of silver and 755,000 ounces of gold over an eight-year period. Daily production averages 57,000 tons per day of ore and waste.
- Fort Knox Gold Mine
As the prime contractor at the Fort Knox Gold Mine Project northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, we provided engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) services for this grassroots mine facility. The project included the primary crusher building, conveyor system, multi-floor mill, and refinery complex. The Fort Knox Gold Mine, for Fairbanks Gold Mining Inwashington divisiond (a subsidiary of Amax Gold, Inc.), was designed and built to process 36,000 tons of gold ore per day.
- Copperstone Gold Mine
We provided contract-mining services at an open pit/agitation leach gold operation at the Copperstone Gold Mine located on the California/Arizona border. This drill-and-shoot operation included haul road construction, mine pre-stripping, excavation and disposal of alluvium and waste rock, and mining and hauling of ore to the crushing facility. Under this contract from Cyprus Copperstone Gold Corporation, ore production averaged 4,600 tons per day and alluvium and waste production averaged 32, 000 tons per day.
