South African Miner Gold Fields’ Salares Notre project in Chile is now expected to start production in April 2024, after further delays caused by commissioning problems, the South African miner said.

Construction of the $1 billion mine started in 2020 with production initially expected early in 2023. However, the mine has missed several targets, including the most recent one for December 2023, due to delays caused by Covid-19 and bad weather.

Gold Fields, already dealing with the effects of inflation and the relocation of endangered chinchillas at its Salares Norte gold project in Chile is now facing potential sanctions from the country’s environmental regulator due to the death of specimens of culpeo fox in the area.

The Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) has ordered the company to implement a series of urgent and transitory measures after the miner reported three incidents around the project that included the death of three culpeo foxes, a species found in the Andes.

The SMA boss, Emanuel Ibarra, said its office constantly monitors the environmental impact of the Salares Norte project, located at 4,200m above sea level, in the dry Atacama region.

“Given the environmental risk tied to the [culpeo fox] species, and bearing in mind the high degree of sensitivity of the ecosystem in which the project is located, we are asking the company to fulfil the requested demands as soon as possible,” he said in a statement.

The Issues Gold Fields Must Address

The issues the SMA is asking Gold Fields to address include submitting new reports of the three incidents informed, incorporating graphic records and studies from specialists, as well as restricting traffic speed in all the project’s interior roads to 40 km/hour.

The watchdog has also demanded Gold Fields re-define emergency reports to include the nature of the environmental impact caused, the relevance of the element impacted and the reversibility of the damage.

Although mechanical construction of the project is complete and mining has progressed significantly, it is now only expected to deliver the first gold during the second quarter of 2024 due to delays in the commissioning process, the Johannesburg-based gold miner said in a statement.

“Current pre-commissioning and commissioning of the project has however, encountered difficulties impacting on the delivery of first gold,” Gold Fields said.

Contractor availability and late configuration changes requested by original equipment manufacturers had also contributed to the delays, it added.

As a result of the delay, Gold Fields has revised its 2024 production forecast from Salares Notre to 220,000-250,000 ounces, from 400,000-430,000 ounces previously. Salares Notre’s output is then expected reach 600,000 ounces in 2025 and 2026.

The Chile mine is key to Gold Fields’ aim of raising its output to about 2.8 million ounces by 2025 from some 2.3 million ounces currently.