Vancouver-based Equinox’s Aurizona gold mine, in Brazil, is on track to achieve year-end 2018 gold pour, with the overall project being 60% complete and plant construction being 51% complete at the end of June.

Installation of semi-autogenous grinding and ball mills is under way and ore stockpiling started in July.

Out of the total $146-million project investment, $64-million has been spent.

While the Aurizona construction team is focused on achieving production, Equinox Gold’s exploration team is focused on mine life extension and district-scale opportunities.

During the quarter ended June 30, the company announced that an initial drill programme is under way at Tatajuba, the western extension of the main Piaba Trend that hosts Aurizona.

The Tatajuba target measures over 4 km in length as defined by coherent gold-in-soil anomalism, geophysics (magnetics), auger drilling and limited diamond drilling.

The initial 2 000 m drill programme is focused on an about 600-m-long portion of the trend where historical drilling intersected significant shallow gold mineralisation.

Other district-scale targets will be tested with upcoming exploration programmes and a study is under way examining opportunities to develop the underground potential of the Aurizona gold deposit.

Drill results from more than 15 000 m of drilling in 2017 at the Piaba and Piaba West targets are being incorporated into a resource update that is targeted for completion in the third quarter.

Further, the company’s past-producing Caste Mountain gold mine, in the US, has delivered a prefeasibility study (PFS) with results including a 16-year mine life, with 3.6-million ounces of gold reserves, which could produce 2.8-million ounces of gold and generate $865-million in after-tax cash flow over the mine life.

Equinox has spent $1.7-million on exploration at Castle Mountain.

The mine will be developed in two phases with yearly average gold production targeted at 45 000 oz over the first three years (Phase 1), and yearly average gold production of 203 000 oz from years four to 16 (Phase 2).

With completion of the Castle Mountain PFS, Equinox’s proven and probable reserves increased by more than 350% to 4.5-million ounces of gold at a gold grade of 0.65 g/t with 3-million ounces in the proven category contained in 145-million tonnes at a gold grade of 0.63 g/t and 1.6-million ounces in the probable category contained in 72.4-million tonnes at a gold grade of 0.68 g/t.

The company’s combined measured and indicated mineral resources are now estimated to be 6-million ounces of gold (inclusive of reserves) with 3.5-million ounces in the measured category contained in 169.8-million tonnes at a gold grade of 0.64 g/t; and 2.5-million ounces in the indicated category contained in 101.5-million tonnes at a gold grade of 0.76 g/t; and additional inferred mineral resources of 2.9-million ounces contained in 178.5-million tonnes at a gold grade of 0.51 g/t.