BajaNomad

Brian82351 asks about Santa Rosalia Mines?

David K - 10-23-2008 at 08:36 PM

Hi Gang,

I received an email from 'Brian82351', he is asking about information on the new operators of the Santa Rosalia mines...

Now, I recall looking at some web site with lots of photos of the re-opened or new mines in the area. Brian said he didn't have luck searching. Does anyone have links to that web site or the posts on Nomad?

Also, to Brian: The reply email I sent back to you was returned as undeliverable? Perhaps your inbox is full?

Thanks!

bajario - 10-23-2008 at 08:44 PM

I know the company is called Baja Mining co. out of Canada. I bought some of there shares a while back after talking to one of the gentlemen on a plane from Loreto last year who was determining the feasibility of opening it. Look under the symbol Bajff.pk and it will eventually lead you to their website.

Russ - 10-24-2008 at 05:13 AM

I found some info here: http://www.bajamining.com/index.php
I have a friend that wants to work there and he went and got insurance and all the papers required and brought his dump truck up to legal status and now the mine will be closed through Xmas and he spend a lot of money on a promise of work if he did all those things. Now he's really hurting. What a shame!

David K - 10-24-2008 at 09:29 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Russ
I found some info here: http://www.bajamining.com/index.php
I have a friend that wants to work there and he went and got insurance and all the papers required and brought his dump truck up to legal status and now the mine will be closed through Xmas and he spend a lot of money on a promise of work if he did all those things. Now he's really hurting. What a shame!


Thanks Russ... That is the web site I saw before!

Here is what is on the history page there (interesting stuff):

HISTORY



Late 1800’s: discovered by local ranchers
1884-1934: the French mined & smelted 14 million tonnes of copper ore grading 5%
1935-1984: sporadic and uneconomic production attempts
1992: staked by current management
Mid 1990’s: optioned to International Curator
Curator spent $23 million in exploration & technical development
2001: reverted back to current management

On April 20, 2004, Baja Mining Corp. (The “Company”) concluded the reverse takeover (“RTO”) of Mintec International Corporation, of Barbados, and consequently its wholly owned Mexican subsidiary Minera y Metalugica del Boleo S.A. de C.V. (“MMB”). MMB holds a 100% interest in the Boleo Copper-Cobalt-Zinc deposit on the Baja Peninsula, Mexico. Contemporaneous with the RTO we also concluded a $10 million equity placement.

The Boleo Property was an historic copper mine in Mexico – producing approximately 19 million tonnes of copper ore at an average grade of approximately 4.3% copper (of which the majority 13.2 million tonnes produced during the period 1886-1947 averaged 4.81% copper) during the period 1868 to 1972. Previous operators were unable to concentrate the minerals contained within the ore and accordingly the ore was direct smelted, accounting for the requirement for the high grade ore and resulting in material grading less than 3% copper either not being mined or backfilled in mined areas. No attempt was made to recover the contained cobalt or zinc (or other potential valuable constituents). Since 1992 approximately US$25 million has been spent on the Boleo Property to assess reserves and to develop modern techniques for the processing of the ore to extract the contained copper-cobalt –zinc, culminating in the issuance of a pre-feasibility study by by Batemen Engineering Pty Limited, of Perth, Western Australia, in February 2002 (the “Bateman Study”).

The Bateman Study focuses on the utilization of relatively new solid liquid separation technology (which is currently being successfully used at three operations with comparable or greater clay content) to separate metal enriched leach solutions from the clayey gangue material, resulting in a significantly simpler and more cost effective flow sheet for the recovery of metal. The current equity financing will now allow the Company to proceed to pilot plant (approx 8 months) the flowsheet. Completion of a successful pilot plant removes the majority of technical risk from the project and is the key component of a final feasibility study.

The Bateman Study, relying on previous studies, contemplated mining a portion of the defined mineral resources at Boleo as an open pit mine. The ore beds at Boleo have many similarities with coal seams and accordingly, current management proposes as part of the Feasibility Study to investigate the use of continuous mining machines to extract material from an underground operation. It is anticipated that because of the relatively high strip ratio (tonnes of waste to tonnes of ore) in the proposed open pit that underground mining costs will be comparable to open pit costs, however the grade of underground resources is significantly higher than proposed open pit resources, resulting in substantially improved economics.

Management has retained Batemen to complete a detailed scoping study to finalize the requirements for a Final Feasibility Study and it is anticipated that Batemen will be retained to complete such study. Batemen’s project manager has completed an initial site visit to the Boleo Property as well as conducting meetings with prospective local (Mexico City) consultants to assist in, among other things, environmental permitting. A decision will be made by management, kin consultation with Batemen, in the next month on the location of the Pilot Plant.

In addition, to proceeding to commence the Final Feasibility Study, management have applied for the necessary permits to commence an exploratory drill program in a potentially new geological basin, the Montado Basin.

Economic studies to date by the Company have utilized long term metal prices of US$0.80 per pound for Copper, US$8.00 per pound for Cobalt, and US$0.45 per pound for zinc. While we will continue to use conservative pricing for the Final Feasibility Study, should metal prices remain at current levels it would obviously have a significant positive impact on project economics.

We look forward to an exciting year as we proceed with the initial phases of the Final Feasibility Study on the Boleo Property, the drilling of the Montado Basin and other as yet unannounced new developments.