Jacobina ‘on the cusp of becoming a major mine’ – Yamana CEO
The Jacobina mine has significantly improved in the last several years and is now considered to be one of Canadian gold miner Yamana Gold’s higher quality, high-value operations.
The mine, located in Bahia state, Brazil, produced 144 695 oz of gold last year and one year ahead of schedule in its plans to increase sustainable production to 150 000 oz/y.
The Phase 1 plant optimisation to reach 6 500 t/d would only have been achieved by mid-2020, but Yamana reported on Thursday that it was ahead of schedule and that the quarter-to-date throughput was averaging 6 182 t/d, compared with 5 580 t/d last year.
The advanced stage of optimisation work has allowed the miner to increase its guidance for Jacobina to between 145 000 oz and 152 000 oz this year, followed by 160 000 oz in 2020 and 170 000 oz in 2021.
The original guidance for 2019 was to produce 145 000 oz.
Yamana also reported that it was mulling a further expansion, with a plant capacity of 7 500 t/d to 8 500 t/d under consideration. A prefeasibility study was under way to identify expansion scenarios.
The higher throughput would gradually increase Jacobina’s gold production to at least 200 000 oz/y and up to 225 000 oz/y by 2023, based on the current mineral reserve grades.
“We believe that it is on the cusp of becoming a world class mine, particularly once a decision is made to proceed with the Phase 2 expansion, given strong production, production growth, increasing mineral inventory at improving grades, and continuous increases in cash flow,” said president and CEO Daniel Racine.
The planned expansion at Jacobina is the continuation of a series of incremental improvements that have been successfully implemented over the past four years, during which gold production increased from 75 000 oz in 2014.
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