Company Profile
Incorporated in the UK, Serabi Gold plc is a gold production and development company focused on the Tapajos geological region of northern Brazil. The Tapajos, covering an area of about 100,000 square kilometres, is a major, under-explored mineral province from which artisanal miners (“garimpeiros”) are thought to have extracted up to 30 million ounces of gold from mostly alluvial and surface weathered bedrock deposits since the 1970’s which would make the region the world’s third largest placer gold producer.
Serabi’s origins in Brazil date back to 1999, and the original founders then had the objective to acquire, evaluate and mine hard rock gold deposits previously unknown or technically too difficult for the garimpeiros to exploit.
Having evaluated several opportunities, the company acquired the Palito Gold Mine in 2001. Preliminary underground mining and gold production commenced in late 2003 building up to peak production levels at the end of 2006. Achieving production of over 100,000 gold equivalent ounces between 2005 and 2008, the Palito Gold Mine was the first hard rock gold mine to be established in the region. The relatively small scale of operations and a lack of sufficient skilled underground mining expertise, however placed pressure on cash flow and working capital and at the end of 2008, underground mining operations were suspended and the mine was placed on care and maintenance.
In June 2012, the Company published an NI 43-101 compliant Preliminary Economic Assessment which demonstrated the viability of re-stating the Palito Gold Mine as a small high-grade selective mining operation producing circa 24,000 ounces per annum. The Company started mine development work in the fourth quarter of 2012 and with the completion of the initial stage of the gold process plant at the end of 2013, gold production commenced at the start of January 2014. The Company declared that Commercial Production at the Palito Gold Mine was achieved effective 1 July 2014.
The current orebody at Palito hosts an NI 43-101 compliant measured and indicated mineral resources of 271,000 ounces of gold with a average gold grade of 11.74 g/t and further inferred mineral resources of 177,000 ounces of gold (as at 30 June 2017).
The Company’s intention was to establish a central processing facility and develop further satellite mining operations where ore could be trucked to the Palito site for processing. In July 2013, Serabi completed the acquisition of Kenai Resources Ltd and in so doing acquired the Sao Chico gold project a small but high grade deposit located within 30 kilometres of Palito. The first ore from the mine was produced during the first half of 2015 and Commercial Production declared as of 1 January 2016.
The current orebody at Sao Chico hosts an NI 43-101 compliant measured and indicated mineral resources of 36,000 ounces of gold with a average gold grade of 13.70 g/t and additional inferred mineral resources of 54,000 ounces of gold (as at 30 June 2017).
The Palito Mining Complex produces approximately 40,000 ounces of gold per annum.
In December 2017, the Company completed the acquisition of the high-grade Coringa Gold Project, an advanced development project, which the Company is in the process of permitting prior to undertaking mine development and construction of a gold process plant which was acquired by the previous owner. The Coringa project has an NI 43-101 compliant measured and indicated mineral resources of 195,000 ounces of gold with a average gold grade of 8.36 g/t and further inferred mineral resources of 181,000 ounces of gold (as at 3 May 2017).