Timmins Gold pours first gold at San Francisco mine in Mexico

by Sergei Balashov

Emerging gold producer Timmins Gold Corp (TSX-V: TMM) has announced the first gold pour at its wholly owned flagship San Francisco gold mine in Mexico less than a month after signing a deal with Peqal de Mexico to provide both mining equipment and personnel for the project for three and a half years.

Mine personnel poured a 46 kg (kilogramme) dore bar, which has been assayed by Timmins Gold with a content of 77.93% of gold, 19.49% of silver and 2.58% in other metals, thus containing 1,152 oz (ounces) of gold and 288 ounces of silver for a total value of US$1.32 million, comprising US$1.314 million of gold and US$5K of silver.

Timmins Gold is currently ramping up to full commercial production at the mine, which is a past-producing open pit heap leach operation from which Timmins Gold has projected production at a rate in excess of 80,000 oz of gold per year. Initial capital costs of mine development are estimated at US$33.8 million, sustaining capital costs at US$12.7 million for total cash operating costs of US$412 per oz of gold.

Timmins Gold's stated goal is to utilize cash flow from San Francisco to expand reserves and production, advance its exploration projects and make strategic acquisitions.

Timmins signed a contract with Spanish headquartered Peal de Mexico in November to utilize a mining fleet consisting of shovels, loaders and trucks to exploit the open pit resource at San Francisco.

The San Francisco gold mine is situated on a 42,000 hectare land package. The mine’s total resource currently stands at 5.35 Mt (million tonnes) grading at 0.91 g/t (grammes per tonne) of gold for 156.9 moz (thousand ounces) in the measures category, 22.65 Mt grading 0.78 g/t gold for a total 559.9 moz in the indicated category for a total measured and indicated resource of 0.72 Moz (million ounces). The inferred resource amounts to 2.51 Mt grading 0.79 g/t of gold for 63.5 moz.

The project’s reserves stand at 22.6 Mt grading 0.85 g/t gold for a total 611 moz in the probable category.

An extensive drill program is currently being planned for 2010 as both the Northwest and Southeast zones require further drilling and a second rig is already on its way to the mine. The 2010 program will be aimed at further increasing the resource.