Just 90 days after receiving its initial permit to build, Canadian miner Bayhorse Silver has completed the new upgraded milling facility in Payette, Idaho, and has restarted milling operations at the site which supports its nearby Bayhorse mine in Oregon.
During the building period, the company said it processed a substantial amount of silver material through its Steinert ore sorter; all of that material was extracted during mine drilling, exploration and safety programs to ensure safe development drifts for mining.
The ore-sorted material, meanwhile, along with fines under 8 mm are now being transported to the newly upgraded mill facility.
Both the mine and mill are designed to have a minimal environmental footprint through the use of ore-sorting, Bayhorse said.
Furthermore, the operation has an additional grinding mill, providing a grind and regrind capacity to ensure an 80-micron grind size. It developed the system while testing between 2017 and 2020 at Metsolve Metallurgical Laboratories of Langley, British Columbia, for maximum recoveries.
“[We have] added three stages of dewatering and fines recovery, as well as a precipitation circuit to enable the tailings to be recycled into eco-blocks, and to reduce dissolved contaminants to comply with the Idaho DEQ minimum requirements for wastewater disposal,” officials noted.
Upgrading the mill to its 50-60 ton/day capacity, which equates to an ore-sorted mining rate of up to 200 t/d, will allow it to satisfy the silver offtake agreement it has with Ocean Partners UK for delivery of its first 300 tonnes of silver concentrate.
Source: Bayhorse Silver