SANTA LUZ

Construction underway to restart production

On November 9, 2020, Equinox Gold’s Board of Directors approved full-scale construction of the Santa Luz Mine. As a past-producing mine, the majority of site services and infrastructure is already in place, resulting in low initial capex of $103 million with first gold pour targeted for Q1-2022.

SnapshotOverviewConstructionFeasibility Study

Full-scale construction is underway with the objective of restarting production at the Santa Luz Mine, located in Bahia State, Brazil. Using the base case $1,500/oz gold price, Santa Luz is expected to produce 903,000 oz of gold and generate $436 million in after-tax net cash flow over an initial 9.5-year mine life, with additional upside from underground Mineral Resources.

HIGHLIGHTS

• After-tax NPV_5% of $305 million at base case $1,500/oz gold
• After-tax IRR of 58% at $1,500/oz gold
• $436 million after-tax life-of-mine (“LOM”) cumulative net cash flow
  • $69 million average annual EBITDA (LOM)
  • $57 million average annual net cash flow (LOM)
• $877/oz average LOM all-in sustaining costs (“AISC”)
• 903,000 oz LOM gold production at an average recovery of 84%
  • 110,500 oz average annual gold production 2022 - 2026
  • 95,000 oz average annual gold production (LOM)
• 1.1 million oz of Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves grading 1.34 grams per tonne (“g/t”) gold
• $103 million initial capital costs with payback in less than two years
• $21 million LOM sustaining capital costs (excluding capitalized stripping)
• 9.5-year initial mine life with expansion potential from underground development
• First gold pour targeted for Q1 2022

CONSTRUCTION IS UNDERWAY!

Equinox Gold commenced full-scale construction of the Santa Luz project on November 9, 2020, with a construction budget of $103 milion. As a brownfields past-producing mine, the majority of site services and infrastructure is already in place at Santa Luz. The initial capital costs to restart the mine include refurbishing existing infrastructure, retrofitting the plant, installing additional grinding power and increasing the storage capacities of the existing tailings and water storage facilities. Open-pit stripping is expected to begin in February 2021. Modifications and upgrades to the processing plant and tailings and water storage facilities are expected to be finished by the end of 2021, with first gold pour targeted for Q1 2022. Progress can be tracked in the photo gallery.

The Santa Luz open-pit mine operated from mid-2013 to mid-2014, when it was placed on care and maintenance following poor metallurgical recovery results from its carbon-in-leach (“CIL”) plant. Subsequent metallurgical testing programs, including the operation of a pilot-scale plant, has demonstrated that resin-in-leach (“RIL”) is a better method of gold recovery for the project.

While the majority of infrastructure is already in place, the design includes a new ball mill, new RIL circuit and new gravity concentration circuit, with its own alkaline electrowinning circuit. The plan also calls for the repair, refurbishment and improvement of the SAG mill, conical crusher, numerous belt conveyors and the water treatment plant. This will include a new primary crusher system, including new earthworks and concrete, jaw crusher, vibrating grizzly, ore bin and liner, apron feeder and belt conveyors. Additional improvements to the existing process plant include secondary slurry and resin pumps, resin wash columns, kerosene pre-treatment circuit, and a heat exchanger and water treatment plant for the elution system.