Management at Alamos Gold’s (TSX: AGI; NYSE: AGI) headquarters in Toronto have confirmed that the company’s wholly owned Mulatos gold mine in Mexico was robbed last week.
A group of five heavily-armed robbers made off with an undisclosed amount of gold in a small aircraft that landed on an airstrip owned by the company near the heap-leach mine in Sonora state.
“We are fully insured on the stolen dore, so we are not expecting any financial impact,” Rebecca Thompson, the company’s vice president of business affairs, told The Northern Miner by email, adding that the company is “currently working with the local authorities.”
A subsidiary of Alamos Gold, Minas de Oro Nacional, issued a statement in Spanish about the robbery, which was picked up by Reuters news agency and apparently translated into English.
When asked for details, Alamos Gold provided an English translation, which explained that the robbery occurred shortly before 8 a.m. on April 8, when the group of robbers stole the bars of gold and silver alloy from security personnel at the mine who were carrying the metal to their plane.
“At approximately the same time, a light plane, apparently a Cessna-206 type, landed and was immediately loaded with the gold,” the company’s subsidiary said. “The robbery lasted less than 10 minutes.”
There were no injuries in the incident.
The Mulatos mine, which had produced 2 million oz. gold up to March 2019, has generated about $420 million in free cash flow since commercial production began in April 2006.
In 2019, Mulatos produced 142,000 oz. gold at total cash costs of US$784 per oz. gold sold and all-in sustaining costs (AISCs) of US$868 per oz. gold sold.
Alamos acquired the asset for $10 million in 2003 and built the mine for about $74 million, pouring the first gold in 2005.
The conventional open-pit, heap-leach is situated in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range in the east-central portion of Sonora, 220 km by air east of Hermosillo and 300 km south of Mexico’s border with the United States.
As of December 2019, Mulatos has a remaining mine life of about six years based on proven and probable reserves of 1.56 million oz. gold.
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