Construction of Phase 1 at the Castle Mountain gold mine, in California, is complete and the first gold pour is expected in the fourth quarter, dual-listed Equinox Gold reported on Thursday.
Equinox started preproduction mining in early June and has stacked more than 1.4-million tonnes of ore on the leach pad to date. Commissioning of the plant is in the final stages and irrigation of the leach pad started this week.
Loaded carbon from Castle Mountain will be processed in the carbon stripping and smelting plant at the company's Mesquite mine, also in California.
"Castle Mountain will be Equinox Gold's seventh producing gold mine in the Americas and our second operating mine in California. We expect Castle Mountain to be a long-life flagship asset for Equinox Gold,” said Equinox CEO Christian Milau.
The Castle Mountain Phase 1 mine will process 12 700 t/d of ore, producing an average of 45 000 oz/y.
The company is completing a feasibility study for the potential Phase 2 expansion, which is expected to average 200 000 oz/y.