In a press release, the Canadian company said that during the entire year, the plant produced high-grade quality concentrates for third parties in 22 mineral campaigns. Most of the batches were polymetallic and ranged from 232 metric tonnes to 1,750 metric tonnes.

According to Peruvian Metals, Águila Norte achieved excellent recoveries by producing 4,091 metric tonnes of highly marketable zinc concentrates averaging 52.4% Zn and 1,364 tonnes of lead-silver concentrate averaging 52.9% Pb and 125 ounces Ag per tonne.

“We fully expect to improve that throughput in 2020,” Jeffrey Reeder, CEO of the Toronto-based firm, said in the media brief. “During 2020, the company intends to continue processing mineralized material with a few select miners while also entering mineral purchase and profit-sharing agreements with other miners.”

Located near Peru’s second-largest city, Trujillo, Águila Norte is one of the few independent processing plants in an area where small-scale mining operations are widespread. It hosts crushing, milling, gravity separation and flotation circuits with an initial throughput capacity of 100 tonnes per day.