Limon Mine & Mill
Producing gold in Nicaragua
Limon is a conventional open-pit and underground gold mining operation.
Snapshot
Ownership
100%
Location
El Limón, Nicaragua
2025 Production1
200,000 – 250,000 oz gold
2025 Costs1
$1,400 – $1,500 per oz AISC
Reserves
697 Koz @ 5.03 g/t gold
M&I Resources2
1,204 Koz @ 2.92 g/t gold
Mining and processing
Open-pit and underground / CIL Plant
Gold produced to date
~4 million oz
1. The Limon and Libertad mines and mills operate under a hub-and-spoke model and are reported as a single unit. 2025 guidance for Nicaragua is 200,000–250,000 oz of gold, with cash costs of $1,200–$1,300/oz and AISC of $1,400–$1,500/oz.
2. M&I Mineral Resources are inclusive of Reserves. See Operations / Reserves & Resources and Cautionary Notes.
Overview
The Limon Mine & Mill is located in western Nicaragua. The exploitation permit covers 12,000 hectares and includes the Limon Central open pit and the Santa Pancha, Panteon, and Veta Nueva underground mines. The area has been explored since the 1850s, mined sporadically since the early 1900s and in continuous production since 2009. The broader Limon Complex benefits from extensive infrastructure and forms part of Equinox Gold’s “hub-and-spoke” strategy, where ore is processed at either the Limon or Libertad mills, which together have 2.7 million tonnes per annum of installed processing capacity.
Operating Data (Nicaragua)
Equinox Gold’s Nicaragua assets operate as a “hub-and-spoke” model with multiple open-pit and underground deposits processed at two processing mills. As such, all of the Nicaragua mines are reported as one operating unit, and the data below include production from both the Limon and Libertad mills.
| 2024 Actuals | 2023 Actuals | 2022 Actuals | 2021 Actuals | 2020 Actuals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold sold (oz) | 207,224 | 242,126 | 180,875 | 183,242 | 135,357 |
| Cash costs ($/oz) | 1,313 | 1,009 | 1,065 | 1,013 | 878 |
| AISC ($/oz) | 1,480 | 1,134 | 1,154 | 1,136 | 1,043 |
| Sustaining capital ($M) | 29 | 27 | 12 | 13 | 9 |
Mining and Processing
Mining is conducted via conventional open-pit methods at Limon Central and a combination of top-down and bottom-up sequenced longitudinal open stoping methods in the underground mines.
The operation is supported by the El Limon processing plant, which has a processing capacity of 500,000 tonnes per year. The plant uses agitated cyanide leaching and carbon adsorption, followed by carbon elution, electrowinning, and doré production with gold recoveries of 94% to 95%.
Exploration
In addition to the exploitation permit, the Limon project also comprises contiguous exploration permits—Bonete-Limon, Guanacastal III, San Antonio, and Guanacastal II—that cover 8,147 hectares. A separate exploration permit, Villanueva 2, is located 12 km to the north and spans 1,200 hectares. Equinox Gold is actively exploring the region with multiple drill rigs focused on resource expansion and discovery.