Burgin Mine
Burgin Complex
The Burgin Complex located about 60 miles in a straight line southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, consists of 527 acres that are a portion of a total of approximately 16,000 acres of adjacent land owned or controlled by Chief (in turn approximately 78.5% owned by Andover) in the Tintic and adjacent East Tintic Mining Districts, Utah, USA. These two districts were mined historically for polymetallic massive sulfide replacement and gold-silver fissure vein deposits.
Burgin Extension
The Burgin Extension deposit is a high grade silver-lead-zinc project and is found within a 3,000ft-long mineralized corridor along the East Tintic thrust fault. In addition to the Burgin Extension deposit, which is open on-strike and down dip, a number of other blind targets were discovered to the east and to the north along the corridor by either Kennecott or Sunshine Mining Company (“Sunshine”) or Chief. These targets include the adjacent 12-48 and 274 Zones to the east, Zone A, Footwall, 50-02, and Ball Park targets to the north. None of these targets are included in the reported National Instrument 43-101 Resource Report. They were discovered by underground drilling and development. Underground drilling access could change the size and scope of the project substantially as it moves towards pre-feasibility and feasibility. The carbonate replacement deposits or manto deposits are part of a large silver, gold, lead and zinc complex for which the East Tintic District is historically famous.
Existing Infrastructure
The Burgin Complex will now come under active development by Chief and a summary of these prospects follow. One of the many advantages inherent in the development of this complex is the presence of accessible shafts, ventilation raises and other facilities for underground operation. These infrastructures are fully permitted and allow active mining operations. They are centered around the Burgin Mine that has a permitted concentrator plant capable of up to 725 tons per day through-put. The Burgin Complex has a series of north-south trending projects along a major thrust fault (East Tintic) and are sited along a highly prospective corridor which is approximately 2.5 km’s in length.
National Instrument 43-101 Report
Chief engaged Mine Development Associates (“MDA”) of Reno, NV, USA to complete both a National Instrument 43-101 Resource Report/ Resource Estimate (completed in June - press release 06.22.2011), and a Preliminary Economic Assessment in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 on the Burgin Extension deposit. The PEA technical report was completed on December 2, 2011. Links to both, the National Instrument 43-101 Resource Report and PEA (Preliminary Economic Assessment ) are provided below.
Download Reports
Highlights from 43-101 report
Mineral Resource Estimate
The resource estimate by MDA that is the focus of this Technical Report is based on a total of 109 holes drilled by Kennecott / Bear Creek Mining Corporation, Sunshine, Chief, and Andover into the Burgin Extension deposit.
The Burgin Extension Indicated and Inferred Resources total 2,277,000 tons at a 5.0 ounce per ton silver equivalent cutoff grade, as presented in Table 1 below:
Table 1 Burgin Extension Mineral Resources
| Burgin Reported Resources – June 2011 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class | Cutoff oz AgEq/ton | Tons | oz Ag/ton | oz Ag | oz Au/ton | oz Au | % Pb | lbs Pb |
% Zn |
lbs Zn |
|
Indicated |
5.0 |
920,000 |
7.28 |
6,694,000 |
0.025 |
23,000 |
9.27 |
170,461,000 |
3.45 |
63,497,000 |
|
Inferred |
5.0 |
1,357,000 |
8.71 |
11,823,000 |
0.013 |
17,000 |
14.43 |
391,589,000 |
5.19 |
140,846,000 |
Preliminary Economic Assessment
Highlights from the PEA include the following
-
Base case using long term metal prices (three year average)
Pretax net present value (5%) of $185 Million US with an internal rate of return of 37.79% and cash flow of $278.6 Million US.
-
Base case plus metal price increases of 30%
Pretax net present value (5%) of $335 Million US with in internal rate of return of 55.86% and a cash flow of $483 Million US.
- Capital Cost Estimates and Cash Flow analysis show a capital cost prior to production of approximately $105 Million USD and a cumulative cash flow of $278.5 Million USD.
Processing
The mined material will be processed in an existing plant on site to produce lead and zinc concentrates. Estimated Metal recovery is 90.3% for Silver, 97.1% for Lead and 91.5% for Zinc as outlined in table 1.2








