09:01 AM EDT, 07/25/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Luca Mining ( LUCMF ) on Thursday said that it has completed construction of its new, 100% owned Tahuehueto gold mine located in Durango State, Mexico.

Tahuehueto is a fully permitted underground operation with a 1,000 tonne per day (tpd) nameplate processing capacity. The mine was completed within budget and has been successfully producing on a pre-production basis for several months.

Processing rates will now start to ramp up to commercial levels and this is expected to be achieved by the end of September. Commercial run-rate levels are considered to be an average of approximately 800 tpd or 25,000 tonnes of ore per month.

Regionally, Tahuehueto is within a prolific and historic mining region including the famous San Dimas gold mine. San Dimas has a similar style of mineralization to Tahuehueto and has produced over 11 million ounces of gold to date.

Dan Barnholden, CEO, said in a statement: "Processing rates are currently averaging 450 tpd and we expect to steadily increase over the coming weeks to reach commercial production in September 2024. Tahuehueto is set to become the second cornerstone asset at Luca. We are ultimately targeting at least 50,000 oz Au Eq annual production from this mine. We are also excited about encountering new high-grade gold zones with significant mineable widths, as recently announced, through our normal course development work.