Gold Fields La Cimasubsidiary of the South African Goldfields which operates the Cerro Corona gold and copper mine (Cajamarca), aims to expand its presence in other regions of the country, with a focus on the south. In this regard, he submitted a request to the Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Institute (Ingemmet) to obtain a mining concession covering a total of 1,000 hectares (ha) in Ayacucho.
In detail, the request made at the beginning of this year aims to have access to an area in the province of Parinacochas, specifically, in the district of Pullo, said entity reported today. This type of requests represents the first step towards future exploration and exploitation of mineral resources in the selected areas.
Currently, the company has exploration projects in the south (Moquegua) and northern Peru (Cajamarca and Ancash).
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Cerro Corona It is the only Gold Fields mine that produces both gold and copper. The operation began production in 2008 and originally had a planned useful life until 2023 (currently extended to 2025), with intentions to extend it until 2030.
The plans in progress
In August 2023, the vice president of finance Goldfields for the Americas Region, Jorge Redhead, commented to Management that Cerro Corona was estimated to produce around 255,000 ounces of gold equivalent that year. “It is a solid, profitable mine, and it has been working very well. Production in 2022 was approximately 260,000 gold equivalent ounces”he recalled.
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Regarding its life extension, it mentioned that they were in the final stage of obtaining permits, which were expected to be issued in the second half of 2024. “Our main challenge in the mine Cerro Corona It is space. The tailings dam could no longer be expanded, so it was decided to extract all the material from the pit and then use it as a tailings dam. In 2026, we should begin using the pit as a tailings dam and process all the ore stored during these years“, accurate.
The opening of the pit will require an investment between US$10 million and US$20 million, according to the company. Regarding ongoing explorations, he mentioned that they are evaluating various areas in Peru. “Our most important project at the moment is Salares in Chile, which is about 96% complete in construction and we hope to begin production in the last quarter. It has been an investment of US$ 1,020 million and it is mainly a gold mine, with the presence of silver”, he commented.
Furthermore, he pointed out that in Peru it is difficult to find mines that only contain gold. Given this situation, he indicated that they were willing to build, operate or acquire an operation that contains at least 30% gold, while the rest can be other metals. “We do not close ourselves to it being just gold”, he concluded.
