The Aurizona Gold Project is located in Maranhão State in northern Brazil. Aurizona is an orogenic gold deposit hosted in a greenstone belt of the São Luis Craton. There are many mineralized bodies on the property, but work to date has focused on the Piaba and Tatajuba deposits on which the current resource is based.
The Aurizona mine was an active open-pit operation from 2010 to 2015, producing approximately 329 kozs of gold at an average grade of 1.3 g/t. Ore was processed through a gravity and carbon-in-leach plant with gold recoveries averaging 88%.
A Feasibility Study was released in August 2017 and outlined a mine restart plan involving an upgrade to the mill that provides for an 8,000 tpd crushing and grinding circuit that can treat all ore types. The average annual production is expected to be 136,000 ounces of gold over an initial 6.5 year mine life and the first gold pour has been targeted for the end of 2018.
Aurizona reported 971,000 ounces of Proven and Probable Reserves as of May 2017 contained in 19.8 Mt of 1.5 g/t gold material (0.6 g/t cut-off at Piaba, 0.4 g/t at Boa Esperança). Exploration programs are ongoing at a number of drill-ready targets including Piaba West which has the potential to extend the existing Piaba deposit 900 metres to the southwest, and Tatajuba which is situated on the same Piaba structure and represents a potential four-kilometre extension along strike from Piaba West.
Recent Activities
January 2018
Full-scale construction activities have commenced at Aurizona and the project is on track to pour gold by late 2018. Equinox is fully funded to production with its cash on hand and $85 million project credit facility.
A 34,000 metre drill program is planned during 2018 and will focus on resource growth, target development and discovery.
December 2017
The business combination between Trek Mining Inc., NewCastle Gold Ltd. And Anfield Gold Corp. is completed. The combined company is called Equinox Gold Corp.
