Yamana Gold Inc (AUY)

[sumisu]

Yamana to boost Brazil gold output 4-fold in 06-CEO

Mon Aug 14, 2006 5:53pm ET

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YRI (Yamana Gold Inc )
Last: $11.09
Change: -0.31 (-2.72%)
Revenue (ttm): $51.6M
EPS: -0.03
Market Cap: $3,203.89M
Time: 4:25pm ET

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Canada's Yamana Gold Inc (YRI.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) will boost gold output from its Brazilian mines four-fold this year, company president and chief executive Peter Marrone said.

"In 2006, we should produce 400,000 oz, up from 100,000 oz in 2005," Marrone told Reuters in a phone interview late on Friday.

The hike is due mainly to Yamana's $631.6 million purchase in April of another Canadian company active in Brazil, Desert Sun Mining Corp, which operated the large Jacobina gold mine in Brazil's Bahia Gold Belt.

"Desert Sun has now been absorbed into Yamana,' he said.

In addition, Yamana is starting up two new mines in 2006.
They are at Sao Francisco in Mato Grosso state, which started commercial production on Aug. 1, and Chapada, in Goias state, which is due to start up late September, he said.

"Our output should then grow further to 600,000 oz in 2007, when we will become the biggest gold producer in Brazil," Marrone said.

He added that from 2008 Yaman should be producing between 700,000 and 750,000 ounces a year, excluding projects currently being studied, he said.

Increased production from 2008 will be achieved via full capacity working at mines now being brought on-stream, and the start-up in 2008 of the C1 Santa Luz mine in Bahia state.

"Gaining environmental permits for the mine projects has been no problem, because they are all simple ones," he said.

Yamana, which only started producing gold in Brazil in mid-2003, now has five producing mines, four in Brazil and one in Honduras, as well as feasibility studies for two Brazilian projects at Sao Vicente and Ernesto in Mato Grosso state.

The company's proven and probable reserves are now put at 7.2 million ounces of gold and 2.3 billion lbs of copper, making it one of the world's largest intermediate size gold companies, Marrone said.

http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20060814:MTFH50197_2....