The historic Monterde mine was first discovered by the Spanish in the mid 1700s and later worked by locals from the municipality of Guazapares. Between 1937 and 1943, Compañia Minera Guazapares, S.A., produced gold and silver from the Carmen and Los Hilos structures. Production was from narrow (1 to 2 metre wide) tunnels dug at several levels into the Carmen shear and its associated splay structures. By today’s standards cut-off grade at 15 grams of gold per tonne was very high. Mill capacity at 25 tonnes per day prevented economies of scale which would have allowed a lower cut-off grade.
Development was by following structures. No drills were used.
Reported production from the six years of operation was 1,311,720 grams of gold and 21,182,000 grams of silver at an average grade of 19.29 g/t gold and 311.5 g/t silver. A total of 68,000 tonnes of ore were reported to have been mined. Despite this production, lack of financing and an inability to procure equipment during World War II resulted in the closure of the mine in 1945.
In 2000 after decades of minimal activity, the historical Monterde mine found a long-term owner when Kimber Resources Inc, a private company at the time, acquired options to purchase the mineral concessions.
In June 2002 when Kimber went public, there were four active and promising properties in various stages of development in the Sierra Madre. Amongst them was the Monterde, an almost forgotten former underground mine which Kimber had acquired as a private company. Now, only six years later, Kimber’s Monterde property is emerging as one of the northern Sierra Madre’s premier gold and silver properties. Total mineral resources on the Monterde property are 0.9 million Measured and Indicated gold ounces and 46.7 million Measured and Indicated silver ounces in 36,797,000 tonnes. In addition there are 0.3 million Inferred gold ounces and 7.3 million Inferred silver ounces in 8,413,000 tonnes.
Brief Corporate History
