Jul 25 2015
AZ Mining Inc. ("AZ Mining" or the "Company") AZ Mining is pleased to announce that it has reached agreement to acquire approximately 300 acres of patented mining claims from the Asarco Multi-State Environmental Custodial Trust.
The addition of the land package, which is adjacent to the Company's existing 154 acres of patented mining claims, will greatly enhance AZ Mining's surface lands for any future mining operations.
Consideration for the acquisition will be the assumption of the environmental liabilities relating to the site that resulted from historic mining activity. The Company has submitted a remediation work plan that addresses the environmental liabilities with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and will construct a passive water treatment system estimated to cost US$2.6 million, excluding contingency, of which the Company's share will be US$1.6 million. In addition, the Company will be required to post bonds, in an amount to be agreed, to secure the future operating performance of the system. The acquisition is expected to be completed within 90 days.
About AZ Mining
AZ Mining is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on the development of its 80% owned Hermosa property located in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The Hermosa property currently has two distinct projects: Hermosa North West, a zinc-lead-silver carbonate replacement zone sulfide mineral exploration project; and Hermosa Central, a silver-manganese manto oxide development project. North West has a resource calculated in accordance with NI 43-101 and is being drilled to test the limits of that resource. The Company released the results of the first five holes of the current drill program on North West in May, 2015 that showed high grade zinc, lead and silver intercepts over significant thicknesses. Central's December 2013 prefeasibility study indicates it is expected to be one of the largest primary silver producers as well as the only electrolytic manganese metal producer in the USA at industry low cash costs. The pre-feasibility study estimates annual production of 5.7 million ounces of silver and 110 million pounds of electrolytic manganese metal (EMM) at average cash costs of $4.41 per silver ounce and $0.74 per EMM pound over an 18 year mine life.