La Yaqui Grande operation has produced a total of 991 ounces of gold in the initial pour and is expected to produce around 3,000 ounces this month
La Yaqui Grande's first bar of gold. (Credit: Alamos Gold Inc.)
Canadian gold producer Alamos Gold has completed the construction ahead of schedule and achieved initial gold production at the La Yaqui Grande mine in Mexico.
The company has produced a total of 991 ounces of gold from the initial pour, and the stacking rates continue to increase with leaching activities that started this month.
La Yaqui Grande is expected to produce around 3,000 ounces this month, and the stacking rates are expected to ramp up through the second half of this year.
Alamos Gold said that La Yaqui Grande mine has created more than 1,000 jobs during the construction phase and would continue to sustain 450 direct jobs.
Alamos Gold president and chief executive officer John McCluskey said: “This represents a significant achievement with construction of La Yaqui Grande having been completed ahead of schedule while navigating a challenging environment over the past few years with Covid-19.
“On behalf of Alamos, I would like to congratulate our entire team at Mulatos. La Yaqui Grande represents another in a long line of discoveries that have continued to extend the mine life of the overall Mulatos Complex since it began producing in 2005.
“Given its higher grades and recoveries, La Yaqui Grande underpins a strong outlook for Mulatos with higher production and lower costs driving growing free cash flow in the second half of this year and beyond.”
According to the company, stacking rates at La Yaqui Grande may lead to increased production and reduced costs at Mulatos, starting in the third quarter.
Mulatos mine will generate strong mine-site free cash flow in the second half of the year, said the company.
The Mulatos mine is located 220km east of the City of Hermosillo, in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range in the east-central region of the Sonora, Mexico.
The large-scale construction project is said to extend the life of the mine for at least five years, and help the company to produce gold in the state of Sonora.
Alamos is a Canada-based intermediate gold producer that operates Young-Davidson and Island Gold mines in northern Ontario, Canada and the Mulatos mine in Mexico.
In addition, the company has a portfolio of development-stage projects in Canada, Mexico, Turkey, and the US, with a workforce of more than 1,700 people.