Name of the Mine
Riacho dos Machados (RDM) mine.

Location  
Minas Gerais state, Brazil.

Mine Owner/s  
Mineração Riacho dos Machados (MRDM), a wholly owned subsidiary of Equinox Gold.

Brief Description
RDM is is a conventional openpit and carbon-in-leach operation.

Brief History  
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), now Vale, discovered the MRDM deposit in early 1986. CVRD operated the property as an openpit gold mine and heap-leach operation until closure in 1997.

The mine remained idle from 1997 until October 2008, when Carpathian Gold Inc. acquired the mineral rights and started prospecting and exploration. Carpathian restarted the mine in March 2014.

In April 2016, Brio Gold Inc acquired the mine from Carpathian. Leagold acquired the mine thereafter through the acquisition of Brio in May 2018.

In March 2020, Equinox and Leagold completed an at-market merger. As a result, the operating entity MRDM is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Equinox.

Primary Metals/Minerals  
Gold.

Secondary Metals/Minerals  
None stated.

Geology/Mineralisation  
The RDM gold deposit occurs in the north-south-trending Araçuaí Fold Thrust Belt along the eastern margin of the São Francisco craton, a major Archean-age basement block that underlies more than one-million square kilometres in eastern Brazil.

The Araçuaí Fold belt is 15 km to 45 km wide and comprises a series of meta-volcanic/meta-sedimentary rocks of late Archean to late Proterozoic age.

The principal host for the gold mineralisation is the quartz-muscovite schist of the Riacho dos Machados group. Mineralisation occurs in a belt of hydrothermally altered rock developed along a district-scale shear zone and in the hydrothermal/shear zone. Gold grades are closely related to the sulphide content, especially arsenopyrite.

Reserves  
Total proven and probable reserves as at December 16, 2020, were estimated at 17.55-million tonnes grading 0.99 g/t gold.

Resources  
Total measured and indicated resources as at December 16, 2020, were estimated at 20.62-million grading 1.03 g/t gold. Inferred resources were estimated at 3.61-million tonnes grading 1.94 g/t gold.

Mining Method  
Conventional openpit.

Major Infrastructure/Equipment  
RDM includes an openpit mine, openpit waste storage facilities, internal mine property roads, processing facilities, offices and support buildings, water wells, an electrical power grid, an access road, transportation and shipping facilities, communications equipment and a tailings storage facility.

Mining equipment includes diesel drill rigs, hydraulic excavators and mechanical rear-dump trucks.

Prospects  
Equinox temporarily suspended RDM operations in May 2022.

Contact Details
Equinox Gold
Tel +1 604 558 0560
Email info@equinoxgold.com
Website https://www.equinoxgold.com/

Sources
Equinox Gold. NI 43-101 technical report on the Riacho dos Machados Gold Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil (October 22, 2021).
Equinox Gold. Website: https://www.equinoxgold.com/ [accessed May 24, 2022].