Sep 29 2005
Goldcorp has announced that the first gold was poured at their Amapari mining site in Brazil on Friday, September 23, 2005.
The pour of 10 kilos occurred 20 months after Goldcorp acquired the property in January 2004. The mine will complete commissioning over the next few months and is expected to reach commercial production in the 4th quarter.
At present, all mining equipment is on site and is operating. To date over 350,000 tonnes have been loaded on the pad at a grade of approximately 2.5 grams of gold per tonne. Production for the remainder of the year is expected to exceed 50,000 ounces.
The project consists of an open pittable heap leach oxide deposit and a deeper sulphide deposit and will comprise an open pit mine and heap leach plant for exploitation of the oxide portion of the deposit. Conventional open pit mining techniques using a shovel/truck operation are being employed and the heap leach process will utilize an on/off heap leach pad, using a stacker and reclaimer.
The mine is scheduled to produce over 180,000 ounces of gold in 2006 at a cash cost of $160 per ounce. The project contains 1.53 million ounces of gold in proven and probable reserves and 1.3 million ounces in resources. The company believes that there is significant exploration potential on the site.
http://www.goldcorp.com