Agua Rica, Alumbrera Plan Integration

Yamana Gold, Glencore International, and Goldcorp have signed an integration agreement pursuant to which Yamana’s Agua Rica project will be developed and operated using the existing infrastructure and facilities of the Alumbrera mine in Catamarca province, Argentina. The Alumbrera mine is owned 50% by Glencore, 37.5% by Goldcorp, and 12.5% by Yamana. Ownership of the integrated project is planned at Yamana 56.25%, Glencore 25%, and Goldcorp 18.75%. The companies believe the integration of Agua Rica and Alumbrera has significant merit given the proximity of the assets and the potential to realize synergies by taking full advantage of existing Alumbrera infrastructure.

The Agua Rica projects hosts a largescale, long-life copper mineral resource, with associated gold, silver, and molybdenum, while the Alumbrera infrastructure has scale and configuration that are ideally suited for the integration plan. Preliminary studies show the potential for a mine life of more than 25 years, with production averaging approximately 236,000 metric tons per year (mt/y) of copper-equivalent metal during first 10 years of operation. Agua Rica’s proven and probable mineral reserves total about 4.5 million mt of copper and 6.5 million ounces (oz) of gold contained in approximately 910 million mt of ore.

The companies have established a technical committee to direct the review and evaluation of the integrated project. They anticipate that a prefeasibility study will be completed in 2019 and that a full feasibility study with updated mineral reserve, production, and project cost estimates will be completed by 2020. The feasibility study will provide the framework for the submission of a new environmental impact assessment to the authorities of Catamarca province.

As featured in Womp 2019 Vol 04 - www.womp-int.com