Cerro Vanguardia, Argentina
Located in the province of Santa Cruz, Cerro Vanguardia operates multiple small open pits with high stripping ratios and multiple narrow-vein underground mines that produce gold with silver as a by-product.
Ownership
92.5%
AngloGold Ashanti
Mineral Resource
of gold
Gold production
Silver production
All-in sustaining costs
Capital expenditure (92.5%)
Workforce
including contractors
Overview and locality
Cerro Vanguardia, in which AngloGold Ashanti has a 92.5% stake, is the Company’s sole operation in Argentina. Fomicruz, a state company, owns the remaining 7.5%. Cerro Vanguardia is a gold-silver operation with multiple open pit and underground mines located within the property that are mined simultaneously.
Cerro Vanguardia operates a single tailings dam. The state road GO-337 passes close to the operation, providing access for logistics. Power for the mine is supplied and purchased in the open market. Three mining methods are used for underground mining: sub-level stoping (bottom-up and top-down), cut and fill, and room and pillar.
A brief history
- Gold exploration at the site was started in late 1980s by the state owned Fomicruz and Minera Mincorp (JV between Anglo American Argentina Holdings Limited and a local private company, Perez Companc).
- Cerro Vanguardia began as an open pit operation in 1998 and this was supplemented in 2010 with the start of shallow underground mining to access high-grade mined material.
- To complement the already existing gold plant, a heap leaching operation was started in 2012.
- The mine has been operated by AngloGold Ashanti since 1998.
ESG statistics 2021
All injury frequency rate
0.75 per million hours worked
Community investment
$3,568m
Reportable environmental incidents
0
Water use
1,466ML
Water use efficiency
0.50kL/t
Energy consumption
1.76PJ
Energy use intensity
0.60GJ/t
GHG emissions
96kt
GHG emission intensity
33kg/t CO2e
Rehabilitation liabilities
$96m