La Victoria is the largest of six deposits on the Lo Increible property - a northeast trending zone of scattered gold mineralization located immediately north of the town of El Callao in the historic El Callao gold district, Bolivar State, Venezuela.  ocated in southeastern Venezuela in the historic El Callao gold district.  Crystallex acquired its 51% interest in Lo Increible in 2001 and commenced open pit mining at La Victoria in April of that year.  Ore from the La Victoria mine, located on the Lo Increíble property, is delivered to the Revemin mill for processing.

Initial metallurgical testwork on the La Victoria sulphide ore deposit demonstrated that the content of refractory ore was higher than originally estimated, and as a consequence a significant portion of the sulphide ore cannot be economically processed using the conventional cyanide gold extraction process at the Revemin mill. The gold in the La Victoria ore is encapsulated in sulphide minerals which prevent sufficient quantities of gold from being exposed to cyanide, and thus results in low gold recovery. Bench scale testwork at SGS Lakefield Research indicated that the ore at La Victoria is very amenable to Bio-Oxidation (BIOX), a pre-treatment step that breaks down the sulphide minerals through accelerating the oxidation process, thereby exposing the gold for subsequent removal by cyanide leaching.

During the fourth quarter of 2003, the Corporation reduced activities at La Victoria as a result of significantly lower recovery rates due to the presence of refractory ore. With the increase in gold prices in 2006 and 2007, the Corporation restarted mining activities at La Victoria. In addition, the mine’s economics were improved by averaging a 75% gold recovery rate in 2007, as compared with the 68% average for the first three quarters of 2003 prior to reducing activities at the mine.

Crystallex is evaluating fine grinding of the La Victoria refractory sulphide ore prior to treatment in the Revemin mill. An in-pit crusher at La Victoria is currently being used to crush waste rock which is trucked to Las Cristinas for use as construction aggregate. 


La Victoria Operating Highlights