Dynasty commissions Zaruma gold plant in Ecuador

Dynasty Metals & Mining (DMM-T) has started commissioning its gold processing plant at Zaruma in southwestern Ecuador.

The plant in El Oro province will be commissioned in phases and Dynasty expects to run and test the full circuit by the end of April.

After the first three months of commissioning and mine development, the company expects the plant to process about 800 tonnes of material a day or 300,000 tonnes a year.

Material is currently being mined via two declines and a third is being built.

Zaruma has a measured resource of 1.56 million tonnes grading 13.93 grams gold per tonne for 702,100 oz. gold and an indicated resource of 915,000 tonnes grading 13.87 grams gold for 408,100 oz. gold.

In the inferred category there are 3.38 million tonnes grading 12.72 grams gold for contained gold of 1.38 million oz.

Dynasty has two other projects in the South American nation, the advanced-stage Jerusalem project in the Zamora Chinchipe province of southeastern Ecuador, about 40 km east of Zamora, and the Dynasty Copper-Gold Belt, which includes the Dynasty Goldfield, a highly prospective exploration project in Loja province in southwestern Ecuador.

At presstime the Vancouver-based company was trading at C$5 per share. It has a 52-week trading range of C$1.05-$6.65 per share and has 35.4 million shaers outstanding.