Trident Royalties: Santa Luz Mine First Gold Pour
Santa Luz Mine First Gold Pour
Trident Royalties Plc (AIM:TRR), the diversified mining royalty and streaming company, is pleased to note the Equinox Gold Corp. (“Equinox”) announcement on 30 March 2022 that it has successfully poured first gold at the Santa Luz Mine in Brazil (“Santa Luz”). *
Santa Luz is a brownfield gold asset with an expected mine life of 9.5 years, in addition to the potential for further underground production.** Trident owns a gold offtake (the “Offtake”) which entitles it to purchase 35% of all refined gold produced from three operating mines: Santa Luz, Fazenda, and RDM. The Offtake is subject to a cap of 658,333 ounces of refined gold, of which 465,437 ounces remained under the contract upon acquisition of the Offtake on 11 January 2022. As detailed in the Trident announcement of 13 December 2021, the Company earns a margin equal to the difference between the sale price of the gold received under the Offtake and the lowest reference price during the Quotation Period.***
HIGHLIGHTS
- First gold poured with material from the leach circuit at Santa Luz, with the mine expected to ramp up to commercial production over the next few months.
- Equinox noted that, “When operating at capacity, Santa Luz is expected to produce approximately 100,000 ounces of gold annually. During 2022, with a partial year of production, Santa Luz is expected to produce 70,000 to 90,000 ounces of gold.”****
- Following the first gold pour at Santa Luz, Trident now holds a total of 13 cash flowing assets.
Adam Davidson, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Trident commented:
“Trident is maintaining excellent momentum in 2022. This year we have already announced first gold production from the Lincoln Gold Mine – over which Trident holds a royalty – and recently, the receipt of first delivery under the gold offtake with i-80 Gold. These milestones reinforce the quality of the assets acquired since our listing in June 2020. With a total of 13 producing assets generating cashflow, we have increasing flexibility in executing on our pipeline of targeted transactions.
I would like to congratulate Equinox on delivering this first pour at Santa Luz on time, on budget, and with no lost-time injuries. We look forward to continuing to update on the progress of our existing assets and the addition of new assets to the portfolio.”
About the Santa Luz, RDM and Fazenda mines
Santa Luz is a mine restart gold project consisting of an open-pit and resin‐in‐leach plant. With a Total Reserve of 1.07Moz @ 1.34g/t Au 5, gold production is expected to average 110.5koz per year for the first 5 years and to average 95koz per year over the initial 9.5-year mine life. Equinox reports that Santa Luz is currently targeting gold production of 70k-90koz in 2022.****
RDM Mine, a conventional open pit and carbon-in-leach (“CIL”) operation, is scheduled to process up to 2.88Mt per year with the potential to expand to 3.28Mt per year. Current production will recover 484koz gold over a 7 year mine life, consisting of 6 years of mining and two additional months of processing. Potential underground production could extend the mine life. Equinox reports that RMD is currently targeting gold production of 70k-80koz in 2022.****
Fazenda Mine has been in operation for over 30 years, it is primarily an underground operation, with supplementary small open pits, and a 1.3Mt per year capacity CIL milling facility. Equinox reports that Fazenda is currently targeting gold production of 60k-65koz in 2022.****
References
* Source: News Release dated 30 March 2022 (Equinox Gold Corp.)
( https://www.equinoxgold.com/news/equinox-gold-pours-first-gold-at-its-santa-luz-mine )
2. Source: Equinox Gold Corp.
( https://www.equinoxgold.com/operations/growth-projects/santa-luz-project/#overview )
3. Source: Trident Royalties PLC company announcement dated 13 December 2021
( https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/trident/news/rns/story/x52139x )
4. Source: News Release dated 25 January 2022 (Equinox Gold Corp.)
5. Source: NI 43-101 Technical Report dated 30 November 2020 (Equinox Gold Corp.)
CEO Adam Davidson provides an overview of the business and its strategy below (Filmed May 2021)
