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Gold Fields hopes to expand its presence in Chile, where its much-delayed $1 billion Salares Norte mine will begin production in December, interim CEO Martin Preece said on Thursday.
The Salares Norte project, which has been hampered by COVID-19 and inclement weather, is expected to produce its first 1,000 next month and between 400,000 and 430,000 in 2024, the Johannesburg-based mining company said in a quarterly update.
The allocation is key to achieving Gold Fields’ purpose of expanding production to approximately 2. 8 million by 2025, from approximately 2. 3 million currently.
“Our strategy in Chile at the moment is: we are working very well in the buildings we own around Salares,” Preece told Reuters in an interview, referring to the exploration sites.
“That would be the first prize if we can locate some other deposit there, because we’ll put a billion dollars of metal in the ground that we can then use for a little bit longer. “
Gold Fields made a strategic investment in Australian exploration company Tesoro Gold, which owns the El Zorro gold assignment in Chile.
Preece said Gold Fields is also actively exploring in Peru, where the life of its Cerro Corona mine extends to 2030.
The company has also invested in Canadian exploration company Chakana Copper Corp, which is advancing the Soledad copper-gold-silver allocation in Peru’s Ancash region.
Gold Fields expects negotiations with Galiano Gold, its joint venture in Ghana’s Asanko mine, which would place the asset under full control by either shareholder, to conclude in December, Preece said.
The company’s production was 542,000 ounces in the September quarter, down 9% year-on-year and 6% quarter-over-quarter, with the largest drop in production volumes in Ghana so far in 2022.
The mining company maintained its 2023 production forecast of between 2. 25 and 2. 30 million ounces despite operational issues stemming from capacity shortages in Australia and South Africa, as well as lower grades in Peru and South Africa. Ghana.
(Reporting by Nelson Banya and Felix Njini; editing by Edmund Klamann and Jan Harvey)