The company said with a sufficient stockpile having been created during the mine development period, a first gold pour occurred, which marks the formal start-up of production at the mine.
There have been over 11,000m of underground development completed, including the start of development of the Barrancas zone that includes the higher grade Lagunas Norte vein.
During the mine development period, 114,000 tonnes of ore were stockpiled with an average gold grade of 7.84 g/t and 114.9 g/t of silver which represents about 30,000 gold equivalent ounces (GEO) in stockpile.
Yamana said production is initially planned at 120,000 GEO per year although the company is evaluating the potential to increase throughput to 1,800 tonnes per day through modest plant modifications and optimizations.
