At a cost of US$70M, Guyana Goldfields has commenced preparations to extend its 100% owned Aurora Gold Mine (AGM) in Region Seven, while protecting the biodiversity. This was told to media operatives on Sunday by Chief Executive Officer, Scott Caldwell.
“We’re going to add some tanks and a…mill, so that expansion total cost over the next three years, capital cost is about US$70M. It will increase our protection on an annual basis from 150,000 ounces where we at now to about 200-210, 000 ounces of gold per year” he said.
AGM produced a total of 151,600 Ozs of gold last year, just over 20% of the country’s total production. For 2017, the company is looking at a total of 170,000 ounces.
“Things are going very very well at site, we had a strong January, We’re having a strong February. This year we think we’ll make 170,000 ounces of Gold if everything goes the way we think it is and so far, things are looking pretty good” Caldwell related.
The company is looking to increase the mine life which currently stands at 15 years, both surface and underground operations.
It has also purchased another mill at a cost of US$6Mto begin drilling close by the Aurora Gold mine where he said have shown good indications.
There are several projects on which the company is working as it looks to improve its operations including the training of females to operate heavy-duty machinery, incorporating the use of drones into its security features, monitoring its biodiversity surrounding the mine and looking at renewable energy.
As it relates to renewable energy, the CEO said the company already spends a significant sum on fuel. The prices for fuel I currently US$56/barrel and he predicts the company can operate upto a cost of US$100 per barrel.
Affirming that AGM “will be one of the last mines to shut down”, Caldwell said “one would hope that if the price for gold goes down, typically fuel likely goes down as well.”
He said the company is doing studies right now to determine the viability of renewable energy if the price for fuel goes higher.
The Mine currently employs 625 persons and 90 contractors.
