Golden minerals company provides activity updates related to five of its active precious metals exploration projects

Golden minerals company ('golden minerals', 'golden' or the 'company') has provided activity updates related to five of its active precious metals exploration projects. the velardeÑa properties contain two underground silver and gold mines that were last operated in late 2015, at which point mining activities were suspended when a combination of low metals prices and dilution and metallurgical challenges rendered operations unprofitable. the company elected to preserve this asset for future use, and since that time it has evaluated and tested various mining methods and processing alternatives that could enable sustained profitable operations. the recent rise in precious metals prices, the advancement of alternative processing technologies in the industry, and the results of the company's testing activities have prompted golden to engage the engineering firm tetra tech to complete an updated preliminary economic assessment ("pea") prepared in accordance with canadian national instrument 43-101 for thevelardeÑa properties. the updated pea will incorporate refinements to the resource model as well as a bio-oxidation processing methodology designed to enhance the recovery of gold from pyrite and arsenopyrite that is common in the veins at both the velardeÑa and chicago mines. previous test work has shown bio-oxidation and subsequent cyanide leaching of the pyrite concentrates from the santa juana mine area to achieve gold recoveries over 90%. testing is in progress to confirm the previous study results using a newly prepared pyrite-arsenopyrite concentrate from current levels of the santa juana mine workings. the company expects the pea to be completed during the first quarter 2020. rodeo, a 1,900-hectare gold project located about 80 kilometers west of velardeÑa, contains approximately 46,000 ounces of gold with an average grade of 3.3 g/t, as referenced in a mineral resource estimate prepared in accordance with canadian national instrument 43-101 by tetra tech dated january 26, 2017. the complete report is available via the same link provided in the preceding paragraph. rodeo represents a source of mineralized material that may be processed at velardeÑa's oxide mill once the company's lease of that mill to hecla mining co. concludes. hecla currently has the right to use the mill through december 2020. golden minerals plans to initiate a small drilling program at rodeo to provide greater resource definition for a mine plan and to provide samples for additional metallurgical testing. the company has begun the process of obtaining the required mining and environmental permits for an open pit mining operation, a process that could take up to one year. complementary to the permitting process, golden has initiated a pea study to document the possible economic results of the planned operation. the resulting report, which will be prepared using 43-101 guidelines, is planned to be published in early 2020.
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