Nothing new or recent at the Santa Elena minesite
Post# of 2057
Sentinel II imagery from the week of April 16th, 2024 shows no recent excavation, dozer tracks or any change for the past four months. The flurry of scattered excavation and new track extended for about 3 months in the fall of 2023 - since early Dec - I've not seen any new work and dont' know what the earlier activity was. Didn't think then it was Mexus and stil don't but no inkling who was burning up diesel and making scratched in the scrub.
Here are some images to show size of Santa Elena comparet to Noche Buena and the relation oif Santa Elena and Noche and La Herradura. Noche is no longer operting and being mothballed. La Herradur is still a major producing mine.
This is still being edited --l check back in ten minutes
Size comparison - Santa Elena bottom vs Noche Buena - the scale is the same here and it contrasts the extent of Santa Elena with Noche Buena - not a fair comparision I know since Noche is a fully develolpe mine with deep pit and leach pads and processing facilities while Santa Elena has just the leach pad and ponds as most visible features. The "Wishbone" is the area that was mined but production was minimal even as decent assay grades were said to be placed on the pad - recovery of gold never matched expectation.
Second view show relation of Santa Elena to Noche Buena. The prominent road to Noche is easily seen. The road from Hiway2 to Santa Elena less so - the distance from Hiway 2 to the mine ops area is about 2 miles of graded dirt road - and uphill.
Finally all three mines in one view - Santa Elena - two white marks at upper right, to the southwest of Santa Elena Noche and La Herradura as marked. . Just being in the "neighborhood" does not mean every acre contains gold - most of that desert scrub between the two major mines, La Herradura and Noche Buena, is just that - desert scrub There were adits or shallow pits that were mined by hand but no major finds and whether Santa Elena contains economic gold is still and unknow. No sig recovery of gold was made after the much earlier operator mined out the Julio shaft to the northwest of Mexus' ops area.