Goldcorp reported in late January 2012 that the company and the government of Guatemala had reached an agree-ment whereby royalties paid on precious metals production from Goldcorp’s Marlin mine will increase from 1% to 4% of gross revenue. The additional royalties will be calculated, paid and distributed in the same manner as the royalty mandated by Guatemala’s Mining Law, including a stipulation that 50% of the total royalty will be paid directly to the municipality in which the extraction of the mineral occurs. Marlin also agreed to pay an additional 1% vol-untary royalty, with 80% of this addi-tional royalty to be used to implement the economic development plans of the municipalities of San Miguel Ixtahua-cán and Sipacapa. The remaining 20% will be paid to the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the Ministry of Environ-ment and Natural Resources to be used to develop the institutional capacity of those ministries.

The royalties are in addition to the income tax of 5% of gross revenues and other wage and value added taxes paid by the company. In 2011, Goldcorp paid approximately $86 million in taxes and royalties in Guatemala. Approximately $96 million in supplies were purchased in the country, in-cluding $5 million from companies located in San Miguel Ixtahuacán and Sipacapa. The Marlin mine currently employs 2,241 people, 97% of whom are Guatemalan.

The Marlin mine is located in the western highlands of Guatemala approximately 300 km north of Guatemala City. Production was from a combined open-pit-underground opera-tion through the end of 2011, when open-pit mining was completed and production transitioned to exclusively underground. The mine had a strong year in 2011, producing 382,000 oz of gold as mining in the higher-grade por-tion of the open-pit was completed. Production during 2012 is estimated at 210,000 oz. Proven and probable gold reserves at year-end 2011 totaled 1.25 million oz. Proven and probable silver reserves totaled 53.49 million oz.