As Aurizona is a past-producing gold mine, the site already consists of significant infrastructure
Image: Aurizona is a past-producing gold mine. Photo courtesy of Erik Stein from Pixabay.
Canadian mining company Equinox Gold has achieved the commercial production at Aurizona gold mine in Brazil.
The Aurizona Gold Project is located in the state of Maranhão, northeastern Brazil between the cities of São Luis and Belém, 320km northwest of the capital city of São Luis.
Equinox said that the Aurizona processing plant operated at an average throughput of approximately 90% of its name-plate capacity of 8,200 tonnes per day and surpassed 90% average recovery in producing more than 7,000 ounces of gold.
In addition, the gold production is expected to increase through the third and fourth quarters of 2019, and the average life-of-mine production is estimated at 136,000 ounces per year.
Equinox Gold CEO Christian Milau ssais: “Achieving commercial production at Aurizona is a significant milestone, making Equinox Gold a multi-mine producer and bringing us one step closer to our near-term target of having three mines in production in 2020.
“We are pleased that Aurizona is ramping up quickly and thank our team, contractors and stakeholders in Brazil for their hard work and support.”
The commercial production at Aurizona mine marks the completion of final condition related to the previously announced corporate revolving credit facility of $130m (£103m). The remaining $30m (£24m) of the facility has now been made available to the company.
Aurizona gold mine details
As Aurizona is a past-producing gold mine, the site already consists of significant infrastructure that includes a developed mine camp, past-producing open-pit operation, processing plant, and associated infrastructure.
The mine was operated from 2010 to September 2015, following which the mining and processing operations were suspended.
It is an open-pit gold mine producing on average 136,000 ounces of gold annually during its initial mine life of 6.5 years. Following the completion of construction, the mine saw first gold pour on 14 May 2019.
The Aurizona project includes approximately 1,500 km2 land package.