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Snapshot
Location: Guanajuato, Mexico
Ownership: 100%
Status: Development
Metals: Gold, silver, copper
Royalty: 3.75%
Overview
The Cerro del Gallo deposit is in the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico, 23km northeast of Guanajuato City. The project sits on a 16,941-haland package including historical mines focused on high grade, vein-hosted gold and silver.
In 2020, Argonaut Gold Inc. prepared a pre-feasibility study for the project that outlined a 16,700 tpd open pit, heap leach operation producing 77koz AuEq/yr over a 15 year mine life. Heliostar is updating the plan with a new pre-feasibility study set to be released near the end of 3Q2025.
History
The Guanajuato district hosted commercial gold and silver mining since the colonial times. Records show that the district has produced more than 6.5 million ounces of gold and 1.4 billion ounces of silver over the last 165 years.
The Geological Mexican Survey first identified the intrusion related gold/copper system at Cerro del Gallo from mapping the late 1970’s. Shallow drilling and small-scale production occurred through the 1980s and 90s by local groups.
Modern exploration of Cerro del Gallo started in 2006 when Cerro Resources drilled nearly 60,000m across 354 holes on the property. Approximately 75% of that focused on the Cerro del Gallo gold-copper system. The rest tested gold-silver epithermal vein targets. This work culminated in a Feasibility Study in 2012for for the heap leach operation.
In 2013,Primero Mining Corp acquired Cerro. The company drilled 12,623 m of infill, metallurgy and condemnation holes. However, the company decided to focus on the development of other assets in its portfolio.
Argonaut Gold acquired Cerro del Gallo in 2017, continuing to focus on the geochemistryof the ore. Heliostar acquired the project in November 2024.
Location and Infrastructure
The project is in state of Guanajuato in central Mexico, a one-hour drive from Guanajuato City(pop. 195k), and 90 minutes from Leon (pop. 1.6m). Mining is prolific in the state, with an international airport and all major mining services available in Leon and a large pool of skilled and unskilled labour available. The nearest town is San Anton de las Minas (pop. 550).
Road access from Guanajuato City is via Federal Highway 110 with the last 17km to the project along a well-maintained gravel road. The project has excellent infrastructure with rail, power and water all available in reasonable proximity. There is a low voltage power line that runs to the project site from the national grid with previous studies showing this line being upgraded to 115kV to support mining activities.
Historical Resources & Reserve Estimates
Overview
The Cerro del Gallo deposit is in the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico, 23km northeast of Guanajuato City. The project sits on a 16,941-haland package including historical mines focused on high grade, vein-hosted gold and silver.
In 2020, Argonaut Gold Inc. prepared a pre-feasibility study for the project that outlined a 16,700 tpd open pit, heap leach operation producing 77koz AuEq/yr over a 15 year mine life. Heliostar is updating the plan with a new pre-feasibility study set to be released near the end of 3Q2025.
History
The Guanajuato district hosted commercial gold and silver mining since the colonial times. Records show that the district has produced more than 6.5 million ounces of gold and 1.4 billion ounces of silver over the last 165 years.
The Geological Mexican Survey first identified the intrusion related gold/copper system at Cerro del Gallo from mapping the late 1970’s. Shallow drilling and small-scale production occurred through the 1980s and 90s by local groups.
Modern exploration of Cerro del Gallo started in 2006 when Cerro Resources drilled nearly 60,000m across 354 holes on the property. Approximately 75% of that focused on the Cerro del Gallo gold-copper system. The rest tested gold-silver epithermal vein targets. This work culminated in a Feasibility Study in 2012for for the heap leach operation.
In 2013,Primero Mining Corp acquired Cerro. The company drilled 12,623 m of infill, metallurgy and condemnation holes. However, the company decided to focus on the development of other assets in its portfolio.
Argonaut Gold acquired Cerro del Gallo in 2017, continuing to focus on the geochemistryof the ore. Heliostar acquired the project in November 2024.
Location and Infrastructure
The project is in state of Guanajuato in central Mexico, a one-hour drive from Guanajuato City(pop. 195k), and 90 minutes from Leon (pop. 1.6m). Mining is prolific in the state, with an international airport and all major mining services available in Leon and a large pool of skilled and unskilled labour available. The nearest town is San Anton de las Minas (pop. 550).
Road access from Guanajuato City is via Federal Highway 110 with the last 17km to the project along a well-maintained gravel road. The project has excellent infrastructure with rail, power and water all available in reasonable proximity. There is a low voltage power line that runs to the project site from the national grid with previous studies showing this line being upgraded to 115kV to support mining activities.
Historical Resources & Reserve Estimates
Geology
Cerro del Gallo is in central Mexico, in the Mesa Central physiographic province that includes the Guerrero Composite Terrane. The deposit occurs in the Esperanza Formation, which consists of layered sediments, intermediate volcanics (ash, lithic and crystal tuffs), and some volcanic breccias. This is surrounded by younger rhyolites and andesites. Even younger, post-mineral, basalt dykes swarms intruded all the lithologies.
The deposit is a copper-gold porphyry overprinted by a structurally controlled, silver-rich epithermal system. The strongest gold and copper mineralization occurs within a quartz vein stockwork. This unit extends up to 400m outward from the margin of the felsic intrusive body. There is asilica cap present on the top of the hill, indicating most of the mineral system remains intact.
Native gold occurs within vein quartz and inclusions within pyrite, chalcopyrite and bismuthinite. Disseminated chalcopyrite is the most common base metal sulfide phase. It also occurs in silicified fracture veinlets. The primary silver minerals found in the later veins are tetrahedrite and electrum associated with galena and sphalerite. However, it also occurs as small grains of native silver.
The 2020 Pre-Feasability Study outlined an open pit minefeeding a 16,700 tpd crushing circuit with gold recovered through heapleaching. The capex estimate to put the operation into production was $145m,utilizing a contractor for mining through the mine's life to keep initial costslow. The study showed a 15.5 year mine life producing 64koz Au, 1.3Moz Ag and2kt Cu annually.
Initially proposed as a truck and shovel operation with a strip ratio of 0.63:1. Operators would stockpile lower grade material (~0.3g/t) and blended in through the mine life to maintain steady throughput at the crusher.
Crushing would be done through a three-stage crushing circuit. This would consist of material from a jaw crusher feeding a cone crusher with a High-Pressure Grinding Roll (HPGR) system utilized to achieve a 5mm product. This material would go to the leach pad and stacked in8m lifts.
The pad would be irrigated and the pregnant process solution reporting first to aSART plant to recover the soluble copper before being pumped to an ADR plant to recovery the gold and silver. The final products would be dore bricks and a 62% copper concentrate
The 2020 study showed the mine with an average by-product total cash cost of US$10.51/t or $597/oz Au. Including the sustaining capital, the life of mine average site-level AISC was shown to be $677/oz Au.
Heliostar is in the process of producing an updated and optimized PFS, slated to be released this fall. This will include an updated resource based on previous drilling, current capital and operating cost estimates and refreshed project economics based on more current metal prices. The team is also working on better defining the metallurgical domains within the deposit to inform an optimized mine plan. Heliostar's goal is to put the operation into production before the end of the decade.
Heliostar is in the process of producing an updated and optimized PFS, slated to be released this fall. This will include an updated resource based on previous drilling, current capital and operating cost estimates and refreshed project economics based on more current metal prices. The team is also working on better defining the metallurgical domains within the deposit to inform an optimized mine plan. Heliostar's goal is to put the operation into production before the end of the decade.
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