The La India Project hosts the historic La India Gold Mine which processed an estimated 1.7Mt at 13.4g/t for 576,000oz Au between 1938 and 1956, the majority of the production under the ownership of Canadian mining company Noranda Inc. At the height of production in 1953, mine records show an annual production of 41,861 oz gold at a grade of 0.3442 oz/ton (11.8 g/t) and 39,282 oz silver (equivalent to 11.0 g/t). The mine worked a dozen narrow high-grade veins using traditional back-stoping techniques with mine drainage achieved and ore transport to a central mill achieved via an extensive network of interconnected drainage and transport adits. The mining was concentrated on two veins; La India vein where a 1200 m strike length was mined to a depth of up to 200 m below surface and the America-Constancia vein where a 2200 m strike length was mined to 250 m below surface. Mine development at these locations and at the smaller satellite workings was incomplete, and in some cases had not advanced beyond exploratory stope development, when mining was halted in 1956. Since the closure of La India gold mine and continuing to the present day, artisanal miners have intermittently worked the most accessible upper levels of the mine and extracted ore from small pits throughout the district.
