Yamana pours first gold at Cerro Moro

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Canadian gold producer Yamana Gold announced this week that it has poured the first gold and silver doré at its Cerro Moro project, in Argentina.

The operation started feeding ore to the 1 000 t/d processing plant in April, and is expected to ramp up to commercial production over the second quarter, with the bulk of gold production weighted towards the second half of the year.

The property contains a number of high-grade epithermal gold and silver veins, which are expected to be mined by a combination of openpit and underground mining. Cerro Moro is expected to produce 85 000 oz of gold and 3.75-million ounces of silver this year, rising to 125 000 oz of gold and six-million ounces of silver in 2019, and reaching 130 000 oz of gold and seven-million ounces of silver a year by 2020.

According to Yamana, the Cerro Moro project offers significant opportunities for the conversion of mineral resources into mineral reserves and for further discoveries on the property. Yamana expects to add at least another one-million ounces of gold equivalent resources to the mineral inventory over the coming years.

To this end, the company plans to convert 110 000 gold-equivalent ounces of inferred mineral resources to measured and indicated resources; discover 250 000 gold-equivalent ounces of new inferred mineral resources; and define future drill targets through scout drilling, soil and rock sampling, and mapping through its 2018 exploration programme.