Irish resource company Minco has awarded the preliminary feasibility study for its La Laguna silver tailings project in the Zacatecas region of Mexico to Micon International of Toronto.
Micon have now started work on the study, which is expected to last some three months.
During the feasibility study, Micon will also supervise the Environmental Impact and Risk Assessment studies required by the Mexican Authorities.
Minco has secured the licence to extract 14 million tonnes of tailings from the lake and continues to evaluate the surrounding land based tailings dumps, estimated to be 27 million tonnes within a five-mile radius of the lake.
It plans to produce about 3.5 million ounces of silver equivalent a year, with an annual revenue of $21 million.
Minco chief executive Mr Matthew Dorman stated: "The Mexican authorities are very keen that the project succeeds and, as a result Minco's proposed process route has found considerable support. The project which was robust when evaluation commenced in July 2003 is, at today's silver prices of more than 6 usd per ounce, very attractive indeed".