Process

Gold Horizons SAC invest in mining projects through our Peruvian management and contacts, which boasts three generations of mining experiences. Our management’s grass roots network connects us to these communities. The concession owners are typically artisanal miners who are local individuals that claimed these concessions for a variety of reasons. Some projects belong to the owners themselves who discovered and claimed the concession and were unable to raise the funds to develop the mine, or the price of mineral was too low for them to make a profit at the time. Others’ projects may have once belonged to large companies, including the government, which had abandoned them for various reasons such as low metal prices or social, governmental, environmental, legal, and security problems, which are now non-existent. These projects are generally small, privately owned, in a late stage of development, and are risk controlled. We are able to purchase these concessions as a Peruvian company on favourable terms with a minimal investment thereby allowing us time to explore and confirm the resource, and any other issues that could prevent the project from moving forward.

MINERAL IS DELIVERED AND VALUED

There is an abundance of ore in Peru. Especially, as outlined here, within the region of Arequipa. Our operating partner has agreements with mineral brokers who arrange with the thousands of small and medium sized miners to sell their minerals. In some circumstances we arrange transportation and this cost is factored in and subtracted from the purchase price.

Once delivered, the process to ascertain its value begins. Lab Peru takes samples from the minerals and completes the assays. This provides a clear and certain value derived from how much gold can be extracted from it.

Shiprrock Peru S.A.C provides engineering, construction, and operational support for the Yuromayo processing facility.
Dump trucks, excavators, bulldozers, graders, rollers, compressors, and other various equipment essential to mining, processing and plant operations.
500kva substation – Compared with diesel generators, electricity from grid would result in a 10-20% savings in the overall costs per ton to process ore and to improve reliability of services

PROCESSING

The minerals are put through the Yuromayo processing facility for "Carbon in Pulp" (CIP) – An extraction technique for recovery of gold. Ore starts its journey by going through two large crushers; from there, golf ball sized rocks make its way to the ball mills.

Slurry comes out from the ball mills and is then pumped through agitation tanks, where a process called leaching extracts the gold contents into carbon. The carbon is removed and washed before undergoing the Desorption process under very high temperatures, and a Doré gold bar can then be casted.

As we are extracting 98% of the gold, there is very little use for our tailings. They are safely drained to the pond and removed by environmental waste removal trucks when full. However, 200 years ago when the Spanish Armada mined the area, they used very primitive crushing techniques and mercury processing. Yielding maybe 40% of the gold contents and resulting huge piles of tailings with a very high gold per ton ratio (e.g. 10-20 grams per ton). These tailings are very fine and can be placed directly into the agitation tanks, thus dramatically reducing our processing time.

The current name plate capacity (MARCH 2015) is 70 tons per day. It is licensed to process up to 300 tons per day and with a little investment (a conical crusher and more agitation tanks), we can very quickly ramp this up to 150 tons per day.

The next closest processing plant is approximately 300km away in Chala. The strategic location of the plant is very important to our business model.

Ball mill with gold room and office in background

PRODUCT - GOLD

Doré gold bars are produced at the Yuromayo processing facility and then independently certified - issued with a certificate of analysis.

Doré bars are sold at or very close to its market value through local Peruvian gold brokers.

FINAL PRODUCT - INVESTMENT GRADE GOLD BARS (995/999 FINENESS)

Although most of the gold processed through Yuromayo is sold in Peru at market price, in order to deliver on our commitment to provide investment grade gold bars to our customers, Ore2Gold-UK and our operating partner secure gold reserves for shipment to our customers.

Although certified doré gold is available, most of our customers' preference is to receive certified, investment grade gold as refined by the world's leading brand, PAMP, which allows for simpler transfer and sale through all major gold dealers.

Ore2Gold-UK fully manages the logistics for gold transfer and insurance.