Cerro Moro is a gold-silver operation located in the Santa Cruz province of Argentina approximately 70 kilometres south of the port city of Puerto Deseado. The Company acquired the operation in 2012 when it completed the acquisition of Extorre Gold Mines. Cerro Moro entered production in 2018, making it Yamana’s newest mine.
The life of mine, based only on mineral reserves, consists of an integrated operation from open pits and underground stopes, and indicates mining for a total period of five years, with a throughput of 1,000 tonnes per day. Exploration and engineering studies are ongoing with an objective to extend the life of the operation, with a strategic mine life objective of 10 years.
The Cerro Moro mine offers significant opportunities for the conversion of mineral resources* into mineral reserves and for further discoveries on the property. Yamana is targeting the addition of 1.0 million gold equivalent mineral resources to the mineral inventory over the coming years.
*Cerro Moro temporarily suspended operations in late March 2020 due to government-ordered restrictions on mining related to COVID-19. The Argentine government declared mining an essential service in April 2020, and operations gradually ramped up over the second quarter. As a result of the suspension and subsequent ramp-up period, 2020 production guidance was revised from the original estimates of 117,000 ounces of gold and 7.5 million ounces of silver to 96,000 ounces of gold and 6.3 million ounces of silver. GEO guidance was revised from 204,000 to 160,000. GEO assumes gold ounces plus the equivalent of silver ounces using a ratio of 86.02 for 2019, a ratio of 86.10 for the original 2020 guidance, and a ratio of 98.85 for the revised 2020 guidance.