CANADA-based gold-mining company, Guyana Goldfields Inc., will be investing an initial sum of US$120M to develop an underground mine at its Aurora Gold Mine (AGM) in coming years, company President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Scott Caldwell disclosed on Sunday.

Caldwell and the Country Manager Violet Smith were among a team of officials from Guyana Goldfields who gave the media an overview of the company’s operations during a working brunch at the Guyana Marriott on Sunday.

While addressing reporters, the CEO disclosed the company’s intention to develop an underground mine at Rory’s Knoll, situated at the Aurora Gold Mine. Currently, Rory’s Knoll is an open mining pit that is being utilised by the Canada-based company.
The move is expected to smooth the life-of-mine production and cost profiles, allowing for consistent operating and financial results, while reducing overall capital, operating costs and further improving cash flows.

“Our future is going to be an underground mine here,” said an optimistic Caldwell. He said a feasibility study which was conducted is currently being revised to reflect an earlier commencement date. The revised feasibility study is expected to be completed and made public by the end of this month.

SOONER START
“Our current study indicated that we would have started underground mining in about four years. We are thinking we would like to start that sooner, in other words, move it forward by a couple of years, gives us a longer time to train, a longer time to get our workforce up to speed with underground mining,” the Guyana Goldfields CEO explained.
The initial feasibility study had put the commencement year as 2022, but the company, in its quest to smooth the forecast production and cost profiles, is hoping to optimise its operation by fast-tracking its plan to launch an underground mine.
“It is very safe and very efficient,” he posited.

“The risk analysis is done, now [it] is just the question of when we will start and we will know the answer to that in about a month,” the CEO added. Already, the company has completed four studies on the project totalling approximately US$4M, and according to Caldwell, the results have all been promising.

Though an underground mine would be a first not only for Guyana, but the company as well, Caldwell said he and his colleagues bring to Guyana a wealth of experience in that method of mining. Their experience and expertise will be complemented by expatriates who would assist with training when the time comes.
“We will have to do quite a bit of training to get our workforce up to speed on that…typically what you would do, you bring in contract miners and they would help you with the training programme,” he explained.

BIG PLAN
The CEO said Guyana Goldfields wants to become the premier underground miner in Guyana and hopefully all of South America.
Guyana Goldfields currently has approximately 665 employees working at the Aurora Gold Mine – 96 per cent of whom are Guyanese. However, with the establishment of the underground gold mine, the workforce could increase by 100.

“When you see the workforce increase is when we transition from opened pit to underground mining,” Caldwell said. He explained that between 75 and 100 additional employees would be needed for the period of time when the company would be operating the open mining pit and the underground mine simultaneously.

Meanwhile, the CEO said though the company’s financial report for 2017 has not been completed as yet, in addition to its budgetary plans for 2018, it produced approximately 160,000 ounces of gold last year.

“We haven’t completed our budget yet, but it will be more than 160, 000 ounces for 2018. Those numbers are going to be released at the end of this month. We are still fine-tuning our budgets for 2018,” he told media operatives.
In has paid a total of US$31M in royalties to the Government of Guyana, while contributing financially and socially to other sectors.

Guyana Goldfields believes that it is well financially positioned to grow near-term production and significantly increase exploration efforts with an unaudited cash balance of approximately US$75 million at the end of the year, versus a total debt balance of US$60 million.

It is a mid-tier gold producer that primarily focuses on the exploration, development and operation of gold deposits in Guyana. The 100 per cent -owned Aurora Gold Mine achieved commercial production January 1, 2016 and has a total gold resource of 6.25 million ounces.