IAMGOLD has reported a 51% increase in reserves at its Rosebel Gold Mine in Suriname, owing to the declaration of reserves from the Saramacca deposit.
Image: Rosebel Gold Mine in Suriname. Photo: courtesy of Iamgold/Wikipedia.org.
The Canadian gold producer has increased consolidated reserves of the Rosebel Gold Mine by 1.6 million ounces to 4.7 million ounces with the Saramacca deposit contributing 1.0 million ounces.
The gold producer said that the reserves of the gold mining project have also been increased due to overall improvements to the current life-of-mine (LOM) plan, which enables inclusion of the Koolhoven deposit.
The inclusion of the Koolhoven deposit contributed an additional 0.4 million ounces to the reserves of the Rosebel Gold Mine.
According to IAMGOLD, the additional reserves from the Saramacca and Koolhoven deposits will extend the mine life of the Rosebel Gold Mine by five years to 2033. On the other hand, the future average annual production, following the inclusion of the two deposits, has been estimated to be 318,000 ounces on a 100% basis.
The Canadian gold producer expects to invest around $128m for developing the Saramacca deposit, which is scheduled to begin mining in the second half of 2019.
Located nearly 25km from the Rosebel mill, the Saramacca deposit upon its development is expected to help IAMGOLD to further tap the exploration potential of its consolidated acreage along the Saramacca – Brokolonko trend.
IAMGOLD president and CEO Steve Letwin said: “Saramacca has delivered. Within only a year of confirming the resource, Rosebel has rapidly advanced Saramacca to reserve status and incorporated the additional ounces into the overall LOM plan.
“I congratulate the exploration and engineering teams for these excellent results and their dedication to moving this project quickly towards production. The significance of this accomplishment stands out at a time when reserve replacement is no longer easy in our industry.”
The Rosebel Gold Mine, located in the Brokopondo district in north eastern Suriname, entered into commercial production in 2004. The gold mine, which is owned 95% by IAMGOLD and 5% by the Suriname government, had registered production of 4.4 million ounces of gold at the end of 2016.