G Mining obtains final licenses for Brazil gold project

G Mining Ventures obtained the operating licenses for its Tocantinzinho gold project in northern Brazil’s Pará state.

The Quebec-based firm obtained the licenses from Pará state environment department Semas for mining, the processing plant, tailings facilities and an airstrip.

“This final step in the regulatory approval process for TZ [Tocantinzinho] is a testament to Brazil’s mining-friendly business environment, its well-structured permitting process and our team’s commitment to excellence in everything we do," G Mining’s CEO Louis-Pierre Gignac said in a statement. 

The company underlined that the project remains on time and on budget for commercial production in the second half of this year.

Tocantinzinho’s useful life is put at 10.5 years and production capacity at 175,000oz/y for initial capex of US$458mn.

Tocantinzinho is one of the few pure gold projects advancing in Brazil at a time when mining stakeholders are looking with greater interest at minerals associated with the energy transition, such as lithium, copper and nickel.

Investments in gold mining in Brazil are forecast to reach US$1.54bn in 2024-28, down from US$2.85bn in 2023-27, according to local mining association Ibram.

Tocantinzinho is the largest new pure gold project in Brazil in terms of capex while other major projects also involve other minerals.

We take a look at the other major projects in the segment, using information from the BNamericas database.

Alemão

The US$2.3bn underground project is controlled by mining giant Vale.

The firm expects production of 60,000t/y copper and 115,000oz/y gold.

The Alemão project, which is located in the Carajas national forest in northern Brazil, is primarily aimed at expanding Vale’s copper production and gold is not part of the company's core business.

Salobo III

The US$1.1bn Salobo III copper expansion project is also controlled by Vale and is in Carajás, in Pará state.

In 2019, Vale started construction of the Salobo III expansion. Combined with Salobo I and Salobo II, throughput capacity will exceed 32Mt/y and output is projected at 33,000t/y copper.

It will also produce gold, platinum and nickel.

Cristalino

Cristalino, also owned by Vale, is an open-pit copper-gold project in the southeast region of Pará, in the municipalities of Curionópolis and Canaã dos Carajas, and is expected to supply the Sossego processing plant to keep it operating.

Capex is estimated at US$500mn and the useful life at 24 years. 

Borborema

The Borborema gold project, owned by Aura Minerals, is located in the Seridó area of Borborema province, in Rio Grande do Norte state.

The greenfield project’s planned capex is US$188mn and production capacity is put at 65,000oz/y gold over and a lifespan of 11.3 years.

Monte do Carmo

The Monte do Carmo gold project is in Tocantins state and capex is put at US$181mn.

Earlier this year, London-listed Hochschild Mining agreed to acquire Monte do Carmo from Canada's Cerrado Gold. The acquisition was valued at US$60mn.

The project has gold production capacity averaging 95,212oz/y over nine years.