Yamana Gold Announces the Discovery of New Mineralized

Download a PDF of detailed drill hole results for Wasamac

TORONTO, Dec. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — YAMANA GOLD INC. (TSX:YRI; NYSE:AUY; LSE:AUY) (“Yamana” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce the following updates.

• At Wasamac, exploration has defined an entirely new shear zone which demonstrates the excellent exploration potential and opportunity to further grow the mineral inventory and support a production platform of 200,000 ounces per year over a mine life of at least 15 years, significantly improving the approved development plan of an average of 169,000 ounces per year over a mine life of 10 years, thereby meaningfully increasing overall value.
• At Odyssey, continuing exploration successes support the longer term potential for higher annual production than the currently contemplated average annual production of 545,000 ounces (100% basis) from 2029 onward and for extending mine life beyond 2039.
• At Jacobina, the Phase 2 expansion is progressing ahead of schedule with permitting now expected by early 2022 which would advance the Company’s second phase expansion to a production level of 230,000 ounces per year for multi-decades at low cost and high cash flow.
• At Minera Florida, the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (“ESIA”) has been submitted and with expected permitting timelines, the mine could begin operating at a planned 100,000 tonnes per month by 2025 and producing 120,000 ounces per year.

Wasamac: New Mineralized Zones Discovered, Initiating Permitting for the Bulk Sample, Engineering Advancing

Wasamac is a development-stage underground gold project located 15 kilometres west of Rouyn-Noranda in the prolific Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of the mining-friendly province of Quebec. The project is well located, adjacent to the Trans-Canada highway and 100 kilometres west of the Company’s 50%-owned Canadian Malartic mine.

Exploration

Exploration drilling at Wasamac continues to deliver promising results. An exploration hole WS-21-524, drilled south of the Wildcat zone testing targets from the 2021 magnetic susceptibility survey, intersected two new mineralized zones, referred to as South Wildcat. The first is a zone of shearing and quartz carbonate stockwork in altered mafic volcanic rocks intercepted at a downhole depth of 402.93 metres, which returned 7.31 grams per tonne (“g/t”) of gold over an estimated true width of 3.37 metres (please see Figure 1 below). The drill hole ended in a wide zone of shearing and strong alteration with anomalous gold grades including 2.3 g/t of gold over a core length of 0.6 metres and 1.3 g/t of gold over a core length of 0.3 metres. This drill hole demonstrates the excellent potential of the area south of the Wasamac shear and north of the Cadillac Tectonic zone and follow-up drilling is planned for early 2022.

Figure 1: Wasamac Project, Map of Wildcat Target with Recent Drill Highlights at South Wildcat.
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d3429f96-775e-4a4a-a7a1-9b5557bdeeb7

The Company believes that the discovery of the two new parallel mineralized structures in between the Wasamac shear and the Cadillac Tectonic zone is further evidence of the excellent geological upside on the large Wasamac property, and it plans to continue the drilling programs to grow the mineral inventories with an accelerated program. These results are aligned with the Company’s strategic objective to achieve a production platform of 200,000 ounces per year over a mine life of at least 15 years. Furthermore, the Wasamac project further solidifies the Company’s long-term growth profile with a top-tier gold project in Quebec’s Abitibi-Témiscamingue Region, where Yamana has deep operational and technical expertise.

Yamana’s average annual gold production in Quebec, including production from Wasamac and the Odyssey underground at Canadian Malartic, has the potential to increase to approximately 500,000 ounces by 2028, and continue at this level through at least 2041.

“The discovery of a new shear zone and further exploration successes support our higher annual production plan of 200,000 ounces over a longer mine life now expected to be fifteen years” said Yohann Bouchard, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

Initiating Permitting for the Bulk Sample

The Company has decided to advance the bulk sample permitting process for Wasamac and expects to obtain the required permitting in the first quarter of 2023. The bulk sample permit would allow construction to commence on the ramp enabling earlier access to the deposit in order to increase the level of confidence in metallurgical and geotechnical assumptions and optimize the processing flow sheet and mining sequence. Construction on surface facilities to support the ramp development activity and associated environmental requirements would also advance.

The bulk sample was not considered in the feasibility study base case and initiating the process has the potential to further enhance the economics and mitigate risks of the project. Additional benefits of the bulk sample include:

• Build production ready models for the grade, recovery, and geotechnical aspects of the project, to support the first three years of production.
• Capture opportunities to optimize the processing performance, as preliminary results of optimization studies indicate the potential to improve average gold recovery by 3%, and up to 5.5% for certain zones of the deposit.
• Confirm stope stability parameters to optimize stope dimensions, backfilling strategy and mining sequence while contributing to ensuring a safe working environment.
• Establish drilling platforms to perform delineation and exploration drilling at Wasamac, Wildcat and new zones from underground.

Project Engineering and Optimization

A program has been implemented to improve recovery, simplifying the process and to better understand the metallurgy of the different areas of the deposit. Preliminary testing indicates that average gold recovery could potentially increase by approximately 3% as compared to the feasibility study.

Substantial work is also underway to select the leading technologies available for the development and operation of Wasamac. The key objectives remain to increase worker safety, minimize impact on the environment and the community, reduce consumption of non-renewable energy and improve energy efficiency. Technologies under evaluation include electric production vehicles, autonomous vehicles, bio-lubricants and ventilation on demand.

The Company relies on a collaborative approach to ensure the success of Wasamac. In this regard, our environmental assessment process is conducted in collaboration with our neighbors, stakeholders and First Nations. A community relations office has now been established to further facilitate ongoing engagement with local residents and accessibility to the Company’s team, as well as providing up-to-date information on the project. A campaign of environmental baseline monitoring and testing is currently underway with the objective of completing the Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA”) by the second quarter of 2022.

Odyssey: Development Advancing with Continued Exploration Success

Yamana and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., who each hold a 50% interest in the Canadian Malartic General Partnership (“the Partnership”), owner and operator of the Canadian Malartic mine, announced a positive construction decision for the Odyssey underground project at Canadian Malartic on February 11, 2021.

The project has advanced significantly throughout 2021, with several milestones achieved in the past several months. In October, the concrete pour to construct the 93-metre-tall headframe was completed on schedule, in preparation for shaft sinking to begin in 2022. The production shaft will be 6.5 metres in diameter and 1,800 metres deep, with the first of two loading stations at 1,135 metres below surface.

In parallel, the ramp from surface to the upper zones is advancing according to plan and, as of the end of November, the ramp heading is approximately 250 metres below surface. By the end of the year, the ramp is expected to be at the elevation of the third production level and the base of the first stoping horizon. Underground development is planned to increase in 2022 with the opening of additional headings and the addition of Canadian Malartic development crews to complement the existing contractor crews. As an employer of choice in the Abitibi, the Odyssey project is successfully building a highly skilled team. The first underground ore from Odyssey South is on track to be processed through the existing Canadian Malartic plant in early 2023.

The combination of shaft hoisting from the lower zones of East Gouldie and Odyssey North with truck haulage from the upper zones of Odyssey South and East Malartic supports an underground production rate of 19,500 tonnes per day (“tpd”) when operating at full capacity. Additionally, the mineralization geometry and very good rock quality are ideal for bulk mining. The East Gouldie zone in particular is at least one kilometre in height, one kilometre in strike length and typically 15 metres wide, with maximum widths of up to 80 metres. Infill drilling confirms that grade continuity throughout the deposit is excellent. As such, large stopes of 30 to 50 metres high by 20 metres wide are achievable.

One of the advantages of the Odyssey project is that it will utilize the existing processing plant and infrastructure of the open pit operation. The Canadian Malartic mill is currently planned to be downsized from approximately 60,000 tpd to 20,000 tpd in 2026 as open pit feed declines, with one ball mill and two crushers planned to be put in care-and-maintenance. However, if additional ore sources are identified in future, this equipment could remain in operation or be re-started at a later date for possible throughput increases.

Regarding permitting,…