Challenger Gold (ASX: CEL) is ramping up its toll milling strategy with ore trucking operations underway at the Hualilán mine in Argentina.
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Feed-grade ore is now being trucked from Hualilán to the Casposo plant by local contractors.
The start-up of haulage comes after Challenger created a three km bypass road around the Calingasta town well ahead of schedule.
Challenger Gold entered into a 24-month mining services contract with MAPAL Constructions and Mining S.A. (MAPAL) for the toll milling phase of the project in November 2025.
The contract encompasses load and haul, auxiliary works, and run-of-mine (ROM) handling activities associated with approximately 3.37 million tonnes of material movement.
The company had previously executed a binding agreement with Casposo Argentina Mining, the operator of the Casposo plant, for processing of a minimum of 450,000 tonnes of near surface Hualilan mineralised material over three years.
Ore haulage has been structured as a controlled, staged logistics operation designed to support safe, reliable and scalable toll milling execution.
During the initial two weeks, ore haulage will be conducted at an initial rate of approximately 500 tonnes per day, increasing to approximately 1,000 tonnes per day as operations transition to continuous day and night shifts.
Road trucks are loaded at the Hualilán run of mine (ROM) pad before travelling to the Hualilán main gate, where they pass over the site weighbridge and proceed to a designated load-covering station.
Ore its then transported approximately 130 km via the paved provincial Route 149 to the town of Calingasta, across the Río de los Patos bridge, via the Calingasta town bypass and onward to the Casposo plant.
Activities associated with preparation of the Casposo ROM stockpile for receipt of Hualilán material, together with access arrangements from the mine gate to the designated stockpile area, were completed earlier this month.
CEL is up 9.09% to 18.0c. Mkt cap $400.1M.
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