Fortuna advances 2 greenfield projects in Mexico

Canadian company Fortuna Mining, formerly Fortuna Silver Mines, will move forward with two greenfield projects in Mexico, while it gradually closes its San José silver and gold mine in Oaxaca state, starting in the first quarter of next year.

"The La Joya project, which will be called El Carmen between Hidalgo and Querétaro, will continue to be prospected and undergo geological studies, as will the Cecilia project in Sonora within Fortuna's greenfields portfolio," Luiz Camargo, the head of local subsidiary Compañía Minera Cuzcatlán (CMC), told BNamericas.

La Joya was owned by a local subsidiary of Vancouver-based Plata Latina, which in August said it awarded the silver-gold project concession to Fortuna in exchange for a 2% net smelter return royalty upon the start of commercial production.

Riverside Resources announced in March that it signed an option agreement with CMC for the Cecilia gold-silver project, where through a series of payments and work commitments, Fortuna can obtain a majority stake. In September, Riverside reported that it began the drilling program at Cecilia.

Fortuna did not disclose the investment planned for the greenfield projects in Mexico.

CFO Luis Ganoza clarified during the Q3 earnings call that “there are a few projects for US$2.5bn in development,” but “the only new project we are really spending exploration dollars on is Diamba,” in Senegal, whose total budget in 2024 is around US$13mn, of which US$9mn is for exploration.

San José closure

In its Q3 earnings report, Fortuna said that management decided to begin the progressive closure in the first quarter of 2025. “A comprehensive multi-year closure and monitoring plan and budget is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2024,” the miner said in a statement.

Camargo said that “this activity will be carried out simultaneously with mining activities in resource areas of the Victoria and Yessi mineralized zones at a rate of less than 1,000t/d to reduce the economic impact of the mine closure.”

He added, “extraction activities are planned for a period of 18 months while closure and monitoring activities of the mining unit continue.”

In October, Fortuna said it was assessing the economic potential of the Yessi vein, discovered in 2023, and the resources of the Victoria vein at the San José mine, after completing an exploration program at the former during the third quarter.

CEO Jorge Ganoza told BNamericas earlier this year that to remain in Mexico, the company needed to see a positive change in the government's attitude toward the industry.

In Q3, San José produced 510,741oz silver and 3,771oz gold, a year-on-year decrease of 63% and 54% respectively, with average head grades for silver and gold of 99g/t and 0.74g/t, a decrease of 48% and 35%, respectively.

The processing plant milled 188,212t at an average of 2,163t/d. Metallurgical recoveries were impacted by higher iron oxide material from the upper levels mined during the period, according to Fortuna.