The Caeté Complex is located 50 kilometers east of the city of Belo Horizonte and includes the Pilar gold mine, the Caeté processing plant and the Roça Grande gold mine. The Roça Grande gold mine was placed on care and maintenance in 2018.
Pilar is an underground mine that predominantly utilizes sub-level stoping as a mining method. Backfilling is completed using loose rockfill. The main ore block is in a fold structure of banded iron formation and has been developed to the 16 level and appears to extend to depth. This area provides the majority of the mine’s production, with 15 to 25% of production provided by the Southwest Zone from higher levels in the mine (ranging from levels 2 through 9).
Ore from Pilar is processed at the 2,000 tonnes-per-day Caeté processing plant, which is located approximately 40 kilometres from Pilar.
The BA zone was newly rediscovered at depth in late 2022 and is a growing high-grade zone at the Pilar mine. The Company has progressed access development on five sub-levels and in the second quarter of 2024 the Pilar mine began to benefit from higher grades and incremental production contributed from this new BA zone, a trend that is expected to continue going forward.
The Roça Grande gold mine was placed on care and maintenance in 2018. The mine is adjacent to, and was the initial source of ore feeding, the Caeté plant.