Eldorado Gold begins commercial production at the Lamaque mine, Quebec

Eldorado Gold has begun commercial at its Lamaque mine in Quebec which is forecast to produce 100,000-110,00 ounces of gold in 2019.

With an initial mine life of seven years, productionis expected to increase to 125,000-135,000 ounces of gold in 2020 and 2021. In 2018, the Inferred Resources at Lamaque were increased by over 50%, and further drilling is currently ongoing to increase both the reserves and resources. 

With over 37,000 meters of exploration drilling budgeted for 2019 and excess capacity at the Sigma Mill the company believes it is well positioned and remains focused on optimising the potential of the Lamaque mine.

Eldorado Gold’s Chief Operating Officer, Paul Skayman, commented: “We are proud to announce the achievement of this important milestone just over 18 months after acquiring this asset. It is a testament to all of the hard work that has gone into the exploration, pre-feasibility study, engineering and construction that we have safely delivered commercial production ahead of schedule. 

“I would like to thank everyone who worked on this project, especially Sylvain Lehoux, Lamaque General Manager, and the rest of the team at site.”

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Lamaque is an underground gold project in Val-d’Or, Quebec consisting of the recently discovered Triangle gold deposit located only 2.5km south of the historical world-class Lamaque and Sigma Mines, which are also on the property and produced over 10Moz of gold. 

The Triangle deposit is located in the Val d’Or mining camp, at the eastern end of the prolific Southern Abitibi Greenstone Belt. The deposit is an Archean greenstone-hosted orogenic lode gold deposit. 

Gold is found within quartz-tourmaline-carbonate veins, which are hosted within a series of sub-parallel sub-vertical shear zones centered around a steeply plunging cylinder-shaped porphyritic diorite (‘The Triangle Plug’), which intrudes the mafic volcanic stratigraphy of the Val d’Or formation. 

Solid progress at Lamaque (the company’s first Canadian mine) is part of a wider upswing for Eldorado Gold at its sites worldwide (in Greece, Turkey, Romania and Brazil) which saw strong fourth quarter gold production of 75,877 ounces - 2018 exceeded guidance with the full year total reaching 349,147 ounces.