Monday, 14th February 2005 (2516 views)

The Yanacocha mine in Peru has reportedly increased its proven and provable reserves by two per cent to 32.2 million ounces for 2005.

Despite dropping a controversial deposit at its Cerro Quilish site because of anti-mining protests, Latin America's largest gold mine claims its current levels of reserves will give it eight more years of production life.

The mine, majority-owned by Denver-based Newmont Mining, has added part of the reserves of the Minas Conga project in compensation for the 3.7 million ounces in reserves at Cerro Quilish, Peru's Compania Minera Buenaventura said.

Located in Peru's northern Andes, Yanacocha ditched plans in November to explore Cerro Quilish after farmers claiming mining would damage water supplies and wreck their livelihoods.

"It's absurd because Cerro Quilish's reserves are there. They are proven. But because the social and political conditions do not allow us to work there, we have to remove them (from Yanacocha's total reserves)," Buenaventura's chief financial officer Carlos Galvez told Reuters news agency.

Yanacocha expects to produce three million ounces in 2005, a similar level to 2004, Mr Galvez said. The low-grade Minas Conga gold and copper mine project will require around $1.3 billion in investment and could start production in 2010.

 

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