Exploration projects

Inmaculada

In the first half of the year, most of the drilling at Inmaculada was potential drilling at the Huarmapata area and resource drilling in the Josefa vein with the best results from Josefa which them merited further drilling in the second half. In addition, there was 2,900m of infill drilling in the Juliana, Susana-Beatriz, Bety, Barbara and Noelia structures. Much of the planned brownfield exploration work including surface drilling work was curtailed in 2022 by a lack of permits.

Pallancata

In the third quarter of 2022, Hochschild announced a major discovery west of current operations at Pallancata. The new area, named Royropata is part of the extended Royropata system.

An initial Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate for the Royropata Zone to the west of the existing Pallancata mine was completed in Q4. The Company estimates that the zone contains an Inferred Mineral Resource of 1.88 million tonnes at an average grade of 667 g/t Ag and 2.42 g/t Au containing 51.2 million silver equivalent (“Ag Eq”) ounces at a combined Ag Eq grade of 848 g/t.

In 2023, the Company will develop the Mineral Resource including infill drilling to convert the Inferred Minerals Resources to Indicated and will also proceed with basic engineering as well as the environmental permitting process, including baseline studies.

San Jose

During the year, 18,150 of potential drilling was executed around the mine area and in the Saavedra area in the Ayelen, Ayelen SE, Maura and Maura East veins, among others, in addition to 2,800m of infill drilling in the Julia, Isabel, Odion, Molle and Perla veins. The Company also started to explore the Ciclon project (700m of drilling) further away in the Santa Cruz province.

In 2022 as a whole 19.3 million silver equivalent ounces have been added to the San Jose resource base at a silver equivalent grade of 983 grams per tonne.

Arcata

The 100%-owned Arcata unit is located in the Department of Arequipa in southern Peru, on a 47,000 hectare site, at an altitude of 4,600 metres above sea level. First concentrate was poured in 1964.

The Arcata underground mine is conformed by vein systems where the epithermal vein deposits are of an intermediate sulphidation type with predominant silver values and variable quantities of gold and base metals. The known structures extend over 29km. The veins are mined by conventional and mechanised cut-and-fill breast or overhand stoping methods utilising timber support. The plant at Arcata produced silver/gold bulk concentrate by flotation.

The mine was placed on temporary care and maintenance in February 2019.

Ares

The Ares underground mine is located in the district of Orcopampa, department of Arequipa, on a site covering an area of 22,700 hectares at an altitude of 4,900 ASL. The unit consists primarily of an underground mine and a processing plant where a Merrill-Crowe leaching process using a standard cyanidation technique is employed to produce Dore. The Group discovered the Ares mine, which it fully owns, in 1988 with underground exploration commencing in 1993. The mine was commissioned into production in 1998 and had operating capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day. Extraction of mineral and production at Ares closed in the second quarter of 2014.