Acquisition:
2009 / 05 / 15
Agreement:
Royalty
Terms:
Au ≤ $1,500 = 3.0% NSR,
Au $1,501 – $2,000 = 4.0% NSR,
Au > $2,000 = 5.0% NSR
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%. Equinox Gold assumed management of the Aurizona mine in 2016 and achieved commercial production in July 2019. The current operation consists of the Piaba open pit mine and a conventional crushing and grinding circuit with an 8,000 tonnes-per-day carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant. For 2025, Equinox Gold expects to produce 70–90 koz of gold at Aurizona.
A positive Pre-Feasibility Study was released in September 2021 for an expansion to the Aurizona mine through the development of an underground mine, which could be operated concurrently with the existing open-pit mine and is subject to Sandstorm’s 3%–5% sliding scale NSR. The assessment outlines total production of 1.5 Moz gold over an 11-year mine life with an expected average annual production of 137,000 ounces.
Recent Activity
February 2023
Equinox Gold received permits for three portal locations for the exploration ramp in anticipation of underground development at Aurizona. Underground exploration drilling continues and the Feasibility Study for the underground expansion has advanced.
