Canadian precious metals miner Yamana said on Tuesday that it had continued to successfully replace the ounces that it mined at its operations.
The company reported year-end gold reserves of 13.7-million ounces and silver reserves of 111-million ounces, which was relatively unchanged from the prior year.
Measured and indicated mineral resources at the end of 2020 were also largely consistent with that of the prior year at 14.5-million ounces of gold, 51-million ounces of silver and 1.4-billion pounds of copper exclusive of mineral reserves.
Inferred mineral resources stood at 15.5-million ounces of gold, 63-million ounces of silver and 2.13-billion pounds of copper.
At Yamana’s development projects, mineral reserves of 7.1-million ounces of gold, 57-million ounces of silver and 6.7-billion pounds of copper were reported.
Yamana stated that, in recent years, exploration results had exceeded expectations with operations not only replacing depletion, but also increasing mineral reserves, mineral resources and the pipeline of exploration targets for future conversion.
Over the past five years, total gold-equivalent (GEO) mineral reserves and resources at the group’s five operating mines increased by 32%, net of the 4.6-million GEOs produced by the operations over that period. This brownfield exploration extended the lives of the existing operations and presented opportunities for growth in the portfolio.
In addition, the acquisition of Wasamac has increased the reserve and resources growth rate to 45% over five years. The company said that Wasamac, an underground project located 100 km from Canadian Malartic, was already showing exploration potential to replicate the resources replacement cycle demonstrated at the other operating mines.