Canadian mining company Equinox Gold has achieved commercial production at its Aurizona gold mine, in Brazil.
During the month of June, the Aurizona processing plant operated at an average throughput of about 90% of its nameplate capacity of 8 200 t/d, exceeded 90% average recovery and produced more than 7 000 oz of gold.
Gold production is expected to continue to increase throughout the third and fourth quarters of this year, with average life-of-mine production estimated at 136 000 oz/y.
“Achieving commercial production at Aurizona is a considerable milestone, making Equinox Gold a multimine producer and bringing us one step closer to our near-term target of having three mines in production in 2020,” commented Equinox CEO Christian Milau in a statement released on Tuesday.
With commercial production achieved, the final condition pursuant to a previously announced corporate revolving credit facility has been completed and the remaining $30-million of the total $130-million has been made available to the company.
In addition to Aurizona, Equinox also owns and operates the Mesquite gold mine, in California, in the US, and expects Phase 1 production at its Castle Mountain mine, in California, in the US, to start in the first half of 2020.