Development work to advance the exploration decline at the Mad Kiss portal of the Aurora mine in Guyana has been stopped, Canada-based Guyana Goldfields reported on Monday, citing an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) request for more information.
The EPA was due to visit the site on Monday and to provide further clarity regarding the request, the company said.
“The company expects to resume its exploration decline construction once the matter has been resolved. All openpit operations, including surface mining and milling, remain in operation and unaffected,” it stated.
The EPA request comes only days after Guyana Goldfields completed the first blast on the Mad Kiss portal, marking the start of construction of what would be the country’s first underground operation.
The Aurora mine entered into production in 2016 and is expected to produce between 150 000 oz and 155 000 oz in 2018.
The underground operations will deliver 2.1-million ounces of the 3.8-million ounces that the Aurora mine will recover by 2033. The 2018 optimised life-of-mine plan (2018 to 2033) contains a total of three-million tonnes of ore grading 2.87 g/t gold.