Gran Colombia produces gold from the Segovia Operations, an area of approximately 9,000 hectares in the Segovia-Remedios mining district of Antioquia. These high-grade mines have been in continuous operation for over 150 years and over that time have produced an estimated 5 million ounces of gold.
The Segovia Operations include The El Silencio Gold Mines, Providencia Gold Mines and Sandra K underground gold mines in the Municipality of Segovia, and the Carla underground gold mine in the Municipality of Remedios, located approximately 10 km southeast of the Segovia mines. Mining operations incorporate both Company-operated areas and an artisanal miner model that contracts local third party miners to work in Gran Colombia’s concessions and to deliver the ore to Gran Colombia’s mill for processing.
Since taking control of the assets in 2010, Gran Colombia has initiated an extensive exploration and drilling program around the existing mines to identify new resources to be able to expand production and has commenced exploration in new areas of its concessions to identify potential new production areas. Simultaneously, the Company is in the midst of an extensive modernization program at the historical mines to introduce mechanization, to improve production efficiency and safety, and to reduce its all-in sustaining costs.
Acquired in the 2011 merger with Medoro, the Marmato Project contains total estimated resources of approximately 14 million ounces of gold and almost 90 million ounces of silver located in the Caldas department in the heart of the Middle Cauca gold district. The Marmato Project has excellent infrastructure, being located by the Pan American Highway with access to Medellin to the north and Manizales to the south, and has access to the national electricity grid which runs near the property.
The Marmato district has been exploited since pre-Colonial times by the Quimbaya people. The Spanish colonists assumed control of the Marmato mines in 1527 and the area has been in almost continuous production ever since. The gold resource of Marmato was so significant that Simon Bolivar, the revolutionary leader who liberated much of South America from Spanish rule, used the mines as collateral with British banks to secure funding for a war of independence against Spain.
The various areas of the Marmato mountain were consolidated in 2009 and 2010 by Medoro: the Zona Alta exploration project, the producing Marmato underground mine in Zona Baja and the Echandia exploration project to the north. The consolidation of the different areas means Gran Colombia is in a position to explore, develop and, subject to feasibility and permitting, expand mining operations at Marmato.
In 2012, the Company identified a new deep zone that contains approximately 300 million tonnes of potential mineralization, and is not represented in the current total resource estimate at Marmato as described above. This mineralization zone is open at depth and is open along strike in both directions.
The Zancudo project in the Titiribí mining district of Antioquia comprises a historical gold mine, the Independencia Mine, in the Middle Cauca Gold Belt that produced about 130,000 ounces of gold with recovered grades of 14.6 g/t Au and 108.4 g/t Ag. The Independencia Mine exploited an epithermal to mesothermal, intermediate sulphidation type vein system that was exploited over 3.5 km with known depths of over 900m. Gran Colombia completed a 12,000m drilling program at Zancudo in 2011 and 2012 that focused on defining new potential resources by following the strike and shallow dip extensions of the Santa Catalina vein that occurs to the west of the historical Independencia Mine. Gran Colombia halted further exploration work on this property while it completes the modernization project at its Segovia Operations.