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The qualification of the pit to use it as a tailings pond implies an investment of around US$10 million or US$20 million.
Gold Fields' Vice President of Finance for the Americas Region, Jorge Redhead, revealed, in dialogue with Gestión, the status of the Cerro Corona expansion project, the company's only mine that produces copper, as well as gold. It came into operation in 2008 and initially had a useful life of 2023 (currently in force until 2025), which is expected to be extended until 2030.
"The mine will produce around 255,000 gold equivalent ounces this year. It is a solid, profitable mine, it has been working very well. Production in 2022 was roughly 260,000 gold equivalent ounces," he said.
For the executive, the only risk that the operation faces is how the weather will behave in the following months in terms of rains "that lead us to continue making changes. For the rest, we do not see any problem in other aspects of our operation in Cajamarca".
Redhead revealed that "we are just at that stage of the final permits to be able to officially extend the life of the mine. Technically it is feasible to do so and we are waiting for the final permits to be issued next year, more towards the second half of the year".
"We are complying with the regulations required by the National Environmental Certification Service for Sustainable Investments (Senace), the Ministry of the Environment (Minam) and the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem)," he remarked.
Also, "today we are focusing on reporting environmental compliance to our local audiences, guaranteeing the feasibility of the project, since the technical part has already been approved by the relevant authority."
More about the initiative
For Gold Fields' Vice President of Finance for the Americas Region, the main problem at the Cerro Corona mine is space. In this sense, the tailings dam could not be further expanded and what was done was to mine all the material that will later be processed, remove it from the pit and then use the pit as tailings dam.
"In 2026 we should already start using the pit as tailings and process all the ore that has been stocked during these years," he said.
In Redhead's words, the project "does not involve a very high investment."
"We are investing close to US$40 million a year until this year, it is what it costs us to prepare all the areas we need to be able to store the material correctly and with all the standards, but the qualification of the pit to use it as a tailings dam does not It is a very high investment, it must be around US$10 million or US$20 million, more or less", he indicated.
Explorations in Peru
Gold Fields is exploring in different parts of Peru, in the southern zone, near Cerro Corona, but now its most important project is Salares in Chile, which is at 96% construction progress and they expect production to begin in the last quarter. "It has been an investment of US$1,020 million, it is a mine mainly of gold, with silver," he said.
They estimate to produce between 500,000 and 600,000 ounces per year in Salares, "it is an important addition to the production of Gold Fields, which is more or less 2.2 million ounces per year and is an important contribution to Chile, which is one more producer of copper ".
"In Peru, it is difficult to find mines that only have gold, it also has another mineral, like Cerro Corona, which has copper. We are willing to build, operate or buy an operation that is at least 30% gold, the rest may be other metals. We are not closed to it being only gold, "he emphasized.
