Vazante

The Vazante mine is an underground and open pit, polymetallic mine, wholly owned by Nexa Brazil, located about 8.5 km from the municipality of Vazante, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Access from Brasilia is via federal highway BR 040 toward Paracatu. Internal roadways connect the various mine site components. Concentrates are trucked about 250 km to the Três Marias smelter. The closest commercial airport is located in Brasilia. The Vazante municipal airport for light aircraft is adjacent to the mine site.

Operations began in 1969 and, in 2022, the Vazante mine produced approximately 131.5 thousand tonnes of zinc contained in concentrates, 1.2 thousand tonnes of lead contained in concentrates and 473.6 thousand ounces of silver contained in concentrates. The ore is treated at a concentrate plant that has a processing capacity of 4.6 thousand tonnes of ore per day.

Cerro Lindo is classified as a volcanogenic massive sulfide (“VMS”) deposit. The Cerro Lindo deposit is 1,500 meters long, 1,000 meters wide, and has a current vertical development of 470 meters below the surface. Mineralization consists of at least 10 discrete mineralized zones. The Cerro Lindo deposit comprises lens shaped massive bodies, composed of pyrite (50.0% to 90.0%), yellow sphalerite, brown sphalerite, chalcopyrite, and minor galena. Significant barite is present mainly in the upper portions of the deposit. A secondary enrichment zone, composed of chalcocite and covellite, has formed near the surface where massive sulfides have oxidized. Silver rich powdery barite remains at the surface as a relic of sulfide oxidation and leaching.
The Cerro Lindo deposit is a Kuroko-type VMS deposit. Mineralization is hosted in a pyroclastic unit composed of ash and lapilli-type polymictic tuffs of the Huaranguillo Formation. The deposit comprises lens-shaped, massive and stringer zones composed of pyrite, sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, and barite. The mineralization has characteristic zoning from zinc-rich to pyrite-rich and associated sericitic-pyritic alteration.
The mineralization has been divided into 20 mining production areas, which are termed OB-1, OB-2, OB2B, OB-3-4, OB-5, OB-5B, OB-5C, OB-5D, OB-6, OB-6A, OB-6B, OB-6C, OB-7, OB-8, OB-9, OB-10, OB-11, OB-12, OB-13 and OB-14.
Mineral exploration activities in 2022 were focused on identifying the continuity of mineralized bodies along the Vazante hydrothermal breccia. We are conducting ongoing tests to explore extensions of known mineralization, infilling areas where no data is currently available, and identifying other areas where mineralization may be present.