The Jacobina mining complex is located in Bahia state in northeastern Brazil. It consists of five underground gold mines: Canavieiras, João Belo, Morro do Cuscuz, Morro do Vento, and Serra do Córrego. Yamana acquired its 100% interest in Jacobina when it completed the purchase of Desert Sun Mining in 2006. The Jacobina mine is a paleo placer deposit with grains of gold hosted in conglomerate beds (reefs) in the Serra de Corrego Formation on the São Francisco Craton. Before the opening of the Atlantic Ocean millions of years ago, the São Francisco Craton was adjacent to similar geological environments in West and South Africa that host the Witwatersrand and Tarkwa gold deposits. Together, these three paleo placer deposits host 40% of the world’s gold resource and reserve inventory. Gold at Jacobina is hosted within a Proterozoic continental rift basin preserved in a 155-kilometre long north-south belt. Yamana controls the entire belt with 71,000 hectares of exploration concessions and 5,000 hectares of exploration permits.

In 2014, the Company launched a major initiative to unlock Jacobina’s full potential. This included aggressive investment in delineation drilling and underground development along with improved geological modelling and mine planning. Production at Jacobina has more than doubled from 75,000 ounces of gold in 2014 to more than 186,000 ounces in 2021, with record production in each of the past five years.

Phased expansion of the Jacobina operation in Brazil is expected to establish a gold production platform of up to 270,000 ounces per year. Jacobina’s large inventory of mineral reserves and mineral resources continues to grow faster than mining depletion, providing the basis for a multi-decade strategic mine life at low costs and high cash flow. 

In 2021, the Company initiated a simplified approach to the Phase 2 expansion to continue incremental debottlenecking and operational improvements, without requiring an expansion of the grinding circuit as originally contemplated. The simplified expansion approach is a continuation of the strategy that has been the basis for the quarter-over-quarter success of Jacobina over the past several years, and is expected to de-risk the project and require significantly lower capital than originally planned in the Phase 2 pre-feasibility study, an amount not expected to exceed $15 million to $20 million.

With the Phase 2 expansion advancing ahead of schedule, the Company is now pursuing the Phase 3 expansion as part of a comprehensive plan which aligns the processing plant, underground mine, and tailings management strategy, while managing capital expenditures and cash flow. Engineering for the Phase 3 expansion to 10,000 tonnes per day ("tpd") will advance in parallel with the Phase 2 expansion, and the processing model will continue to be updated to integrate operational data from Phase 2, with a feasibility study for Phase 3 scheduled for completion in 2023.

Jacobina has a strong track record of mineral reserve replacement. The mine had another successful year of exploration in 2021, adding 324,000 ounces of gold mineral reserves, a 5% increase compared to the prior year above depletion of mining. Gold mineral reserves have grown by 55% or more than 1 million ounces over the past four years to 2.94 million ounces. Mineral resources have increased by 69% over the same period. Mineral reserves average gold grade is unchanged from the previous year at 2.18 g/t and the Company continues to sequence lower grade stopes later in the mine life. Importantly, the rate of growth in mineral reserves and mineral resources exceeds annual depletion, supporting the Company’s strategy to sustain a multi-decade mine life and facilitating the future Phase 3 expansion to increase production up to 270,000 ounces per year. Highlights from 2021 include the addition of inferred mineral resources at João Belo Sul, which represents a potential new mining sector, and the continued expansion of the Morro do Vento, Canavieiras, and João Belo mines at depth.

Please see the press release published February 8, 2022, for the Company’s most recent exploration update for Jacobina.

Please refer to Mineral Reserves & Resources for complete information relating to mineral reserves and mineral resources indicating tonnage and grade for the various mines and projects.