African Mining Network

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AMN - MOROCCO: Commercial production at Zgounder

Maya Gold & Silver Inc is in commercial production at its Zgounder Silver Project in Morocco. This status was reached on January 1, 2019, with installation of the last component of the mill operation which has a 3-fold effect on milling capacity and output at its Zgounder silver mine.

This followed the commissioning and testing phase of the 500 tonnes per day flotation mill.

During a 28-day period, a total of 4,622 tonnes of low-grade ore with an average silver grade of 157 g/t was processed. Overall silver recovery with flotation followed by cyanidation of the flotation concentrate reached 80.3%, including in the system silver metal balance, which was better than expected for the testing phase. The flotation mill produced 321 tonnes of concentrate at a grade of 1,861 g/t silver for a 7% weight recovery.

Founder, president and CEO Nourreddine Mokkadem said: “Achieving commercial production at Zgounder, Maya’s flagship project, marks another major milestone as we continue to deliver growth and value for shareholders. Our team’s execution capabilities delivered the mine on schedule and in line with our expectations.

"As demonstrated by its very low cash cost of below $6.37/ounce, the Zgounder silver mine is expected to immediately start contributing to Maya’s free cash flow.”

Maya Gold & Silver's portfolio also includes the Boumadine polymetallic deposit in the Anti-Atlas Mountains of Eastern Morocco. Additionally, the portfolio includes the Amizmiz and Azegour properties with gold, tungsten, molybdenum and copper deposits covering over 100 square kilometres in a historical mining district.

At Boumadine the company has compiled results from its diamond drilling program, drilling on the tailings and surface sampling.

This work has confirmed that historical mineralised panels are still in place while mineralisation extends at depth.

The core samples were assayed for multi-element and as well as gold, important grades of germanium were discovered during the analysis, including up to 497 g/t over 1.5 metres.

It appears germanium is not evenly distributed in all sectors and it may be related to zoning within mineralised zones associated with sphalerite (zinc) and other sulphides. Additional work is being done in order to take the germanium values into account in the mineral resources.

Best gold drill results were 28 metres from 153 metres at 10.79 g/t gold equivalent and 8.35 g/t gold; 11 metres from 170.1 metres at 8.77 g/t gold equivalent and 3.83 g/t gold; and 6 metres from 177 metres at 14.88 g/t gold equivalent and 1.8 g/t gold.

Best surface sample results were 2 metres at 48 g/t gold, 2.5 metres at 0 g/t, 1.5 metres at 6.82 g/t and 1.15 metres at 6.76 g/t.

With these positive results, Maya has postponed publication of a PEA on Boumadine and has undertaken an additional 37-hole diamond drilling program for 1,840 metres at the North and Imariren zones.

www.mayagoldsilver.com