Aura Minerals Inc. announces that production at its Almas Mine has commenced. The mine and plant are currently in operation and the Company expects to achieve commercial production at Almas by July 2023.
Rodrigo Barbosa, President, and CEO, commented, “We have hit a major milestone in our Company history today with the start of production of our first ever greenfield project completed in only 16 months and expected Capex of approximately US$78 million, with no material deviation from the project budget, despite challenges related to procurement, the pandemic and inflationary pressures. Our strategy of focusing on simple and scalable projects that are easy to build and easy to operate
under the highest ESG standards, which we call Aura 360, is paying off. This efficient model has already resulted in significant benefits to both Aura and the local communities. We invested approximately 50 thousand hours on training and have 57% of direct labor hired from the local communities which we expect to further increase during the ramp-up of the operation and next
year. We look forward to providing additional updates as we achieve commercial production and begin sales at Almas,and completing the ongoing Borborema Feasibility study with construction anticipated to commence by the end of this semester. With Almas online, we expect to deliver value not only to our shareholders but contribute to the economic growth of the region.”
Almas is an open pit gold mine located in the state of Tocantins, Brazil, and is wholly owned by Aura. Almas is the first greenfield project constructed by Aura.