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TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Vancouver-based Silvermex Resources has launched preliminary economic assessment studies for its San Marcial silver project, in Sinaloa, Mexico, the firm announced on Tuesday.

The economic assessment will include a review of the metallurgical, processing, mining and infrastructure requirements for potential mining and milling operations at San Marcial, and will seek to define the economic viability of the deposit.

Reconstruction and improvements to the access roads are underway and a mining contractor has been commissioned to restore access to the mine and main portal.

San Marcial has an indicated mineral resource of 18-million oz of silver, 55,3-million pounds of zinc and 29,9-million pounds of lead, plus 4,4-million ounces of silver, 34,7-million pounds of zinc and 19,5-million pounds of lead in the inferred category.

A metallurgical test program has begun for San Marcial and preliminary results are expected in mid May, Silvermex said.

The company is taking an additional representative 150 kg sample and the resulting material will be shipped to an independent metallurgical laboratory to improve processing and metal recoveries.

The results of these tests will be used to determine flow process, plant design and equipment selection, and this work is expected to be completed in late in the second quarter or early in the third quarter of 2009.

Silvermex has six projects in north-western Mexico, and is also working on a preliminary economic assessment of another prospect, Frazada, in the country's Nayarit state.