The high-grade gold/silver El Peñón mine is located about 160 kilometres southeast from Antofagasta - a port city in northern Chile.
Project History
El Peñón began commercial production in January 2000 and has replaced reserves every year since.
Type of Operation
Operations are currently 100% underground vein mining using the bench-and-fill method. Processing includes single stage crushing and grinding, followed by tank leaching followed by a Merrill Crowe circuit with on-site dore production. Tailings are filtered and final deposition through a patented dry process.
Mine Highlights
- El Peñón is a high grade mine with a proven track record of consistent, low cost production.
- The extension of the Bonanza vein re-affirmed El Peñón’s positioning as one of Yamana’s most significant mining operations.
2008 Overview
- Received permission to increase throughput to 3,600 tonnes per day.
- Improved infrastructure and installed a new secondary crusher and mill.
- Focused exploration on the North Block leading to the discovery of Bonanza North.
- Measured and indicated mineral resources increased significantly by over 14 percent year-over-year.
- Proven and probable gold reserves were replaced for the tenth consecutive year.
2009 Overview
- Mined at a progressively higher rate and grade.
- Accelerated development work on new veins and exploration efforts in the North Block.
- Implemented a detailed plan to improve operational and modeling procedures and to accelerate further throughput increases.
- Completed mill expansion increasing capacity to 4,400 tonnes per day.
Future Growth
- Performance initiatives including optimization of dilution control and changing equipment to manage thickness variability of veins are ongoing.
- With US$18.4 million budgeted for exploration, consisting of 69,500 metres of exploration drilling and 24,550 metres of infill drilling, Yamana is focused on extending the known deposits, upgrading certain inferred mineral resources to the indicated resource category, continuing efforts at new discoveries and a broader regional exploration program
- Discovery of new vein zones could sustain a longer mine life.
Production and Costs
2009A: 394,400 GEO
2010E: 400-420,000 GEO at $350-390 per GEO
2011E: 410-430,000 GEO at $340-360 per GEO
Reserves and Resources
(at December 31, 2008)
Proven and Probable Reserves
8.9M tonnes at 6.72 grams/ tonne gold = 1.9 M ounces gold
8.9M tonnes at 240 grams/ tonne silver = 69M ounces silver
Measured and Indicated Resources
(exclusive of reserves)
3.9M tonnes at 8.67 grams/tonne gold = 1.1M ounces gold
3.9M tonnes at 238 grams/ tonne silver = 30M ounces of silver
Inferred Resources
(exclusive of reserves)
3.6M tonnes at 8.98 grams/ tonne gold = 1.0M ounces of gold
3.6M tonnes at 263 grams/tonne silver = 31M ounces of silver