According to the company, the expansion allows for an increase in the annual life of mine production from approximately 275,000 oz/y to 300,000–305,000 oz/y of gold and a reduction in direct cash costs of approximately $35/oz. Mill throughput will increase from 8 million mt/y of ore to 8.9 million mt/y while adding operational flexibility to increase throughput by another 15%–25% if warranted. The mill expansion eliminates the need for stockpiles, and through the installation of extra leach tanks to increase residence time, will boost metallurgical recovery from 94% to 95%.

“This program will continue to improve production from Rosebel and bring down cash costs at the operation, resulting in a reduction of our overall cash costs,” said Joseph Conway, president and CEO. “Rosebel is our largest and most significant operation and there is considerable value yet to be realized there.”

A mill optimization program that began in 2007 will be completed in November 2008, according to the company, and will allow production rates to be maintained as more hard rock is fed into the mill. Approximately $15 million of the program’s $26-million budget remains to be spent during 2008. The announced $18.4 million investment— involving improvements to the plant’s leaching capacity, tailings pumping and piping, ore handling and conveying, gravity circuit and thickening—is also planned for 2008, with results having an impact on production and costs beginning in 2009.

Concurrent with mill expansion is the redesign of the existing mine plan to eliminate marginal ore and reduce the life of mine strip ratio from 4 to 3.5 while maintaining the mine reserve grade at 1.2 g/t. The company stated that the impact of the lower strip ratio and the reduction of marginal material in the mine plan will reduce the current mine life by one year through the loss of about 430,000 oz of gold reserves, but a significant increase in profitability will offset the potential loss of production.

Further mine engineering work is also ongoing for an expansion in mine production capacity through an increase in the size of the mining fleet. Iamgold plans to spend $12.8 million to replace old equipment including six haul trucks, four backhoes and two dozers; and another $3.9 million to acquire a new hydraulic excavator and other equipment. The current mining fleet comprises 36 trucks of 90-mt capacity, seven shovels, two loaders, 10 drills and 11 D9 dozers.

Iamgold is also spending $9.8 million on exploration and development which includes 26,000 m of infill drilling for reserves development and resource conversion and 35,000 m to delineate additional resources on known targets.