Jacobina is an underground mine in Brazil, acquired from Desert Sun Mining. Yamana is developing a number of underground mines on the Jacobina property to supplement ore feed currently coming from Joao Belo Mine to feed a centralized mill.
Morro do Vento, Morro do Vento Extension and Canavieiras will come on stream as production capacity increases from current levels of approximately 5,000 tonnes per day to target levels to more than 7,500 tonnes per day by end of year 2008, to 8,500 tpd and potentially to 10,000 tpd.
Jacobina was commissioned in the first quarter of 2005 and commercial production was declared on July 1, 2005.
It is expected that Jacobina will be producing at the annualized level of 135,000 to 145,000 ounces per year in 2008, increasing to 180,000 to 190,000 ounces in 2009.
Overview
Location
The Jacobina property is located in the state of Bahia in northeastern Brazil approximately 340 kilometres northwest of the city of Salvador. The property is comprised of 5,996 hectares of mining concessions, 129,572 hectares of granted exploration concessions and 6,012 hectares of filed exploration claims. The property encompasses upwards of 155 kilometres of exploration concessions along historical gold occurrences in the Bahia Gold Belt.
Type of Operation
Underground mines serving a central CIP processing plant
Proven and Probable Reserves
(at December 31, 2007)
18,829,000 tonnes at 2.02 grams/tonne gold = 1,224,000 ounces gold
Measured and Indicated Resources
(exclusive of reserves)
27,350,000 tonnes at 2.42 grams/tonne gold = 2,125,000 ounces gold
Inferred Resources
47,398,000 tonnes at 2.61 grams/tonne gold = 3,975,000 ounces gold
Expected Annual Production
135,000 to 145,000 ounces of gold in 2008
180,000 to 190,000 ounces of gold in 2009
Expected Mine Life
12+ years
Project History
The Serra do Jacobina mountains have been mined for gold since the late 17th century. Numerous old workings from artisinal miners can be seen along the ridges of the mountain chain and garimpeiro activity, on a small scale, has taken place sporadically up to present day. Yamana acquired Jacobina when it completed the acquisition of Desert Sun Mining in April 2006. When Yamana acquired the project, the plant was operating near its design capacity of 4,300 tonnes per day and an expansion plan was being formulated to increase annual production from less than 100,000 ounces per year to approximately 200,000 ounces per year.
Operating Plan
Yamana has undertaken the second phase of Jacobina’s expansion plan. As part of a two phase expansion, Yamana plans to complete an expansion of the Jacobina processing plant to a capacity of more than 7,500 tonnes per day by the end of 2008. The final throughput rate will be dependent to a significant extent on converting the large inferred and indicated resource at Canavieiras to reserves and determining the full potential at Canavieiras. Development work will continue throughout 2008 and in the process Yamana will develop a full and comprehensive mine plan to accommodate the expansion and longer term processing of ore at the various levels of capacity.
Value Enhancing Initiatives
One of the most promising opportunities to enhance value at Jacobina is to continue delineating resources at the higher grade Canavieiras project and to convert these resources to reserves. Canavieiras is only four kilometres from the Jacobina mill and its grades are upwards of 1.5 to 2.0 times the grade currently being mined and processed from Joao Belo.
Significant value and economies of scale will also be created as the Company continues with the expansion plan to ultimately double production from the Jacobina property.