Feb 24 2011
Gammon Gold Inc. (TSX: GAM) and (NYSE:GRS) has announced today that the Company successfully resolved the labour disruption at its 100% owned El Cubo mine, located in Guanajuato State, Mexico.
The Company has secured a more productive, standardized Collective Agreement that includes significant concessions and terms reflecting current legislated norms and industry best practices. The new two year collective agreement has been unanimously approved by the union.
As operations at the El Cubo mine have been suspended since June 2, 2010, the Company will initially focus on evaluating the underground conditions and mine facilities to develop an operations plan that will allow production to recommence as soon as possible. Production operations will be phased-in as management retrains employees and develops sufficient mining areas to allow the proper sequencing of underground mining activity as the mine ramps up to full scale production.
Concurrent with ramping up operational activities, Gammon will resume exploration activities to follow-up on the Dolores-Capulin discoveries made at El Cubo in 2009 and 2010 and advance efforts to convert the resource into proven & probable reserve categories.
The El Cubo property is located in one of the most prolific gold and silver mining districts in Mexico, with historic production of approximately 5 million ounces of gold and 1.2 billion ounces of silver over 400 years. In 2009, the mine produced 49,357 gold equivalent ounces(1) (27,842 gold ounces and 1,183,339 silver ounces) at a cash cost of $582 per gold equivalent ounce(1). As at December 31, 2009, El Cubo's proven & probable reserves were 596,000 gold equivalent ounces(2) with an additional 278,000 gold equivalent ounces(2) in measured and indicated resources and 694,000 gold equivalent ounces(2) in inferred resources.
Commenting on El Cubo, René Marion, President and CEO, stated: "We have been steadfast in our view that to unlock the true value of El Cubo, significant amendments to the Collective Agreement would be required. We now look forward to rehiring our employees and operating and growing this asset to the benefit of Gammon Gold stakeholders under a Collective Agreement that supports enhanced operational and cost efficiencies that will benefit both the Company and our workforce and their families."
Gammon will provide a definitive timeline on when production will recommence once the Company has completed its infrastructure evaluation and finalized the production start-up plan.
Source: Gammon Gold Inc.