Los Filos Expansion

Restart activities underway

Equinox Gold has initiated planning for the restart of heap leach operations, while continuing to pursue technical and engineering studies to assess longer-term expansion opportunities.

Snapshot

Ownership

100%

Location

Guerrero, Mexico

Production estimate1

~300,000 oz/year

Cost estimate2

–

Reserves

5,354 Koz @ 0.86 g/t gold

M&I Resources3

7,897 Koz @ 0.75 g/t gold

Mining and processing

Open-pit / underground / heap leach / CIL

Estimated mine life

14.5 years

1. Based on the 2022 feasibility study. See Cautionary Notes.
2. Costs will be updated should a decision be made to advance the project.
3. M&I Mineral Resources are exclusive of Mineral Reserves. See Operations / Reserves & Resources and Cautionary Notes.

Overview

In October 2022, Equinox Gold released an updated feasibility study for an expansion at Los Filos. Based on the feasibility study, with continued development of the Bermejal underground deposit and construction of a 10,000 tonne-per-day carbon-in-leach (CIL) processing plant, the Los Filos mine life would be extended to 14.5 years with life-of-mine (LOM) average annual production increasing to 280,000 ounces of gold at all-in sustaining costs of $1,081 per ounce (using 2022 input prices). Total LOM production is estimated at 3.97 million ounce of gold. Peak production is estimated to average 360,000 ounces of gold per year.

Development plans were halted for the majority of 2025 and the first half of 2026 following the expiry of the land access agreement with the community of Carrizalillo on March 31, 2025, one of the three communities that hose the mine. Equinox Gold continued collaborative discussions with all three communities, and on June 25, 2026, announced that new long-term land access agreements had been signed with all three communities. These new 20-year agreements reflect a shared commitment to responsible operations and sustainable benefits over time and provide an important foundation for strengthening the Company’s long-term relationship with the communities and fostering an environment that supports future investment and long-term value creation. In addition to the new surface land access agreements, the parties agreed to an overall policy on labour and supply services. 

With new agreements in hand, Equinox Gold has commenced planning for the restart of heap leach operations. Restart activities include environmental remediation, permitting, workforce rehiring and retraining, and supplier contract negotiations. 

In addition, the Company continues to pursue exploration programs and technical and engineering studies to assess longer-term development options, including construction of the CIL processing facility. The technical work will include an assessment of opportunities to optimize and grow the operation, including evaluating increases to the envisioned CIL mill throughput relative to previous studies, as well as updating project economics and development plans. The 2022 technical report was prepared using a mineral reserve gold price assumption of $1,450 per ounce (see October 19, 2022 news release), and the Company believes there may be opportunities to enhance project economics through updated metal prices, as well as optimized operating assumptions and technical parameters. 

The Company will provide updates on restart activities and development plans as technical work progresses. Equinox Gold has not included any production from Los Filos in its 2026 production guidance.

Expansion Highlights

The updated feasibility study contemplates building and operating a 10,000 tonnes-per-day CIL processing plant to operate concurrent with the existing heap leach facilities. All underground ore and higher-grade open-pit ore (generally above 0.5 g/t gold) would be directed to the CIL plant, with lower-grade ore going onto the heap leach pads as either crushed or run-of-mine stacked ore. Ore that contains higher levels of copper and sulphur would also be directed to the CIL plant to optimize the economic recovery of gold from all ore types.

The information below is based on economic, engineering and other information available at the time of publishing the feasibility study and using the base case gold price of $1,675/oz. Equinox Gold will update this information as part of engineering, optimization studies and economic reviews before making a construction decision.

Highlights from the feasibility study:

  • After-tax NPV5% of $625 million at base case $1,675/oz gold
  • After-tax IRR of 26% at $1,675/oz gold
  • 5.4 million ounces gold of Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves
  • 7.9 million ounces gold of Measured & Indicated Resources (exclusive of Reserves)
  • 3.97 million ounces life-of-mine (LOM) gold production
    • 360,000 ounces peak average annual gold production (2025-2030)
    • 280,000 ounces average annual gold production LOM (2023-2036)
    • 1.22 million ounces of gold produced from the heap leach with average recovery of 55%
    • 2.75 million ounces of gold produced from the CIL plant with average recovery of 88%
  • 11.83 million ounces LOM silver production
  • $993 million after-tax LOM cumulative net cash flow
  • $981/oz average LOM cash costs
  • $1,081/oz average LOM AISC
  • $318 million initial capital cost to build the CIL plant and associated infrastructure
  • 14.5-year mine life with extension potential from Mineral Resource conversion and exploration success

Infrastructure

The majority of infrastructure requirements for an expansion at Los Filos are already in place, including heap leach facilities, an ADR plant, water storage and distribution, maintenance workshop, laboratory, site administration buildings, warehouse and workforce facilities. New infrastructure required includes the CIL plant, a new 40 MW electric substation, an extension of the 115kV high voltage transmission line to the new substation, an upgrade of the mobile equipment workshop, additional waste rock storage facilities, and an expansion of the heap leach pads.

Water usage for the Los Filos Mine Complex is currently 1.0 Mm3/a and the permit allows for 1.2 Mm3/a of extraction. An application to increase the water permit to 2.2 Mm3/a is in process. 

Additional power will be required to operate the CIL plant. The current capacity of its existing electrical substation is 20 MW to satisfy a demand of up to 14 MW peak demand. The CIL plant will consume additional energy beyond the capacity of the existing substation; therefore, a larger, 40 MW substation is proposed to provide electrical energy to the expanded mine. An application was made to CENACE (Mexico’s federal electricity commission utility) for the additional energy required, and CENACE completed a study to confirm energy availability and electrical infrastructure upgrades. The study will be updated once a final decision to advance the CIL plant is made.

Growth Projects

Equinox Gold is advancing expansion projects in Canada, the USA and Mexico.

Learn More