Tambomayo

Tambomayo (100% BVN) is a high-grade underground gold and silver operation located in the Tapay district, Caylloma province, Arequipa region, at 4,800 meters above sea level. It successfully produced its first doré bar in December 2016. The mine was discovered by Buenaventura.

Geology: Tambomayo is a polymetallic epithermal-mesothermal gold-silver vein deposit with base metals in quartz gangues, located in Tertiary andesitic volcanics. The gold is found in native and electrum state, while the silver is found in sulfides and sulfosalts accompanied by galena and sphalerite. There are two main vein systems: Mirtha, NW-SE oriented, and Paola, N-NE oriented. There are also nearby exploration areas.

Mining: The main veins of the deposit correspond to the Mirtha and Paola systems. The mineral is extracted through ramps and the 4840 crossing using 30-ton trucks. The mining methods used are ascending cut and fill and mechanized bench & fil with low-profile equipment. For the ventilation of the works there are two main fans of 300,000 cfm and secondary fans for exploration and development. For mine drainage there is a water pumping station, with a capacity of 60 l/s that evacuates the water to level 4740 for treatment.

Metallurgy: The metallurgical process at Tambomayo consists of primary crushing, fine grinding, gravimetry and cyanidation in tanks to obtain a solution rich in gold and silver to be processed at the Merill Crowe plant (precipitation with zinc). The precipitate is dried and smelted to obtain doré bars (gold and silver). The cyanidation tailings enter the flotation process, from which lead-silver and zinc-silver concentrates are obtained.

Treatment capacity: 2,000 TMD