El Chanate is a former gold mine in
Sonora
Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
, Mexico owned by
Alamos Gold
Alamos Gold ("Alamos") is a Canadian multinational gold producer, headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Alamos operates three mines across North America, and has six further projects in development.
Alamos Gold is engaged in the mining and extract ...
.
started in the early 19th-century and continued until 2018, at which point operations reduced to leaching.
Description
El Chanate is an open-pit gold mine located in the
Altar Municipality of
Sonora
Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
, close to the
Mexico–United States border,
in the northwest of
Sonora
Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
, Mexico that is owned by Canadian corporation
Alamos Gold
Alamos Gold ("Alamos") is a Canadian multinational gold producer, headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Alamos operates three mines across North America, and has six further projects in development.
Alamos Gold is engaged in the mining and extract ...
.
The mine covers 4,618 hectares and is located around a fault, above sedimentary and volcanic rocks. Twenty-seven million tonnes of gold ore was estimated to be on site in 2014, grading 0.74g/t of gold.
History
The mine was worked by artisan miners since the early 19th-century.
-based Chanate Gold Mines Co. was registered in 1898.
In the 2007, Capital Gold Corp's subsidiary Minera Santa Rita, started working the mine.
In 2015, a merger between
AuRico Gold
AuRico Gold was an intermediate gold mining and exploration company that, until August 2011, operated only in Mexico. It reached intermediate gold producer status in August 2011 when Northgate Minerals agreed to be taken over for C$1.46 billion. Ga ...
and Alamos Gold, transferred the mine's ownership to the later company.
In 2016, the mine's operators spilled 10,000 litres of cyanide solution, some was captured in ponds and some contained local soil, before being relocated into a lined leach pad.
Mining stopped in late 2018, when operations switched to residual
leaching. As of 2023, the mine's owners had stopped listed it as a producing mine.
See also
*
List of gold mines
References
{{Mining in Mexico
Gold mines in Mexico
Open-pit mines