DENIS MIVILLE-DECHÊNES VP and GM of Rosebel Gold Mines

Cambior is pouring millions of dollars into its new pit and is ready to extend its search for new deposits

RECORD production at low operating costs at its two-year-old Rosebel gold mine last year has encouraged the Canadian company Cambior to focus on exploration and development drilling.

Rosebel Gold Mines, of which Cambior holds 95 percent and the Suriname government 5 percent, has been spending US$5 million a year to expand the ore reserves. Proven and probable reserves at the six known deposits have increased by more than 60 percent to 3,212,000 ounces since production commenced.

Located approximately 70 miles south of the capital, Paramaribo, Rosebel has replaced the depleted Omai gold mine in neighboring Guyana as Cambior’s most productive mine. Last year it produced 341,000 ounces of gold at an operating cost of just US$208 per ounce. The mine has a projected life of 10 years and employs more than 1,000 people.

Denis Miville-Dechênes, the company’s Vice-President and General Manager, says it will continue to invest in Suriname. “We like what we have seen up till now, and will look elsewhere in the country. You want to go where the better deposits are,” he explains.