Gran Colombia Gold aims to complete gold plant expansion, tailings processing plant in Q4

Canadian miner Gran Colombia Gold aims to complete both an expansion of its Segovia mine's 1,500 mt/d gold plant to 2,000 mt/d and a zinc-lead-gold-silver tailings processing plant in the fourth quarter, CEO Lombardo Paredes said Aug. 13.

The company, which last week raised $300 million in bonds to fund its $378 million Toroparu gold project in Guyana, is on track to meet 2021 production guidance of 200,000-220,000 oz of gold.

Gran Colombia is investing $40 million in its operations this year, including a $12 million expansion of the mine's 1,500 mt/d Maria Dama processing plant to 2,000 mt/d and $7 million plant to process zinc-lead-gold-silver tailings. The company is also working on a $14 million, 60,000-meter drill program at the 9 ha Segovia concession.

"The expansion of Maria Dama is proceeding as planned and will be completed before the end of this year," CFO Mike Davies said Aug. 13 on a quarterly conference call. "The new poly-metallic plant is expected to be completed in the third quarter and we should start to see returns on this investment starting in the fourth quarter."

The company sold $300 million in 2026 bonds this week to fund the development of its $378 million Toroparu underground gold-copper-silver project in Guyana, which aims to produce 200,000 oz/year of gold by 2024, according to Davies.

Canadian contractor Nordmin in September will release a preliminary economic assessment for the project, which has "tremendous support from the Guyanese government," he said.

Gran Colombia produced 52,198 oz of gold and 54,573 oz of silver in the second quarter, up from 48,228 oz and 41,342 oz a year ago, respectively, the Toronto-based company said. Segovia processed 1,526 mt/d at ore grades of 12.7 g/t gold in the quarter.

The company sold 52,838 oz of gold at $1,797/oz in the quarter, while all-in sustaining costs rose to $1,101/oz from $1,045/oz a year ago.

Gran Colombia is Colombia's second-largest gold miner after Zijin Mining's Buritica mine, which started operations in 2019.