TORONTO, Dec. 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YAMANA GOLD INC. (TSX:YRI; NYSE:AUY LSE: AUY) (“Yamana” or “the Company”) provided an update on its generative exploration program activities, announcing positive drill results from the Lavra Velha, Monument Bay, and Borborema projects, as well as the addition of two new projects, Cambista and Cambiazo, to the program in Chile.

The generative exploration program is a key component of Yamana’s overall growth strategy, designed to advance the Company’s most prospective properties and lay the foundation for the next generation of Yamana mines. By prudently investing in its exploration project pipeline today, the Company expects to steadily increase its mineral resource base and generate consistent long-term growth in production and cash flow. The Company’s generative work is focused on its large land positions in mining-friendly jurisdictions in the Americas where Yamana already has producing mines and deep technical, geological, and operational expertise. This allows for the rapid advancement of the Company’s highest value projects while at the same time moving the most promising early-stage properties up the exploration pipeline. The main objectives of the generative program are the discovery of a standalone project with inferred mineral resources of at least 1.5 million ounces of gold equivalent within three years that, on a longer-term basis, can support the development of a new cash flow generating mine with production of 150,000 ounces per year for at least eight years.

Projects in the generative exploration program are categorized and defined as follows:
Tier One Projects with well-defined gold mineral resources and opportunities to grow to a potentially economic threshold in the next three years
Tier Two Projects that have achieved significant drill intercepts and whose geology along with other factors support rapid mineral resource growth
Tier Three Highly prospective projects with known mineralization defined with rock and soil geochemistry that warrant future drill testing

The first year of the generative exploration program showed significant progress, notwithstanding limited drilling activity due to COVID-19 related restrictions, strengthening the Company’s conviction that it will meet its objective of discovering a standalone project with inferred mineral resources of at least 1.5 million ounces of gold equivalent within three years. The results also underscore the scope, breadth, optionality, and value of Yamana’s generative portfolio, which now consists of 11 projects including the addition of two new Tier 3 projects, Cambista and Cambiazo, in Chile. Both of these projects, along with several others in the generative portfolio, including Jacobina Norte, are located in close proximity to producing Yamana mines, which will allow the Company to leverage its expertise and experience in these regions to advance the projects and potentially benefit from existing infrastructure should these projects become producing mines. Drill results at Borborema, Ivolandia, and Cambista-Cambiazo show excellent potential to advance to the next tier.

PROJECT SNAPSHOTS
Tier One
•Lavra Velha (Bahia, Brazil) hosts stacked, flat-lying mineralized zones that are oxidized near surface. Exploration is expanding the known oxide mineral resource base, and the deposit is being evaluated as a potential open pit prospect relying on heap leaching for recovery.

•Monument Bay (Manitoba, Canada) is a four-kilometre long mineralized Archean shear zone with steeply plunging higher-grade mineralized shoots that is being considered as a potential underground higher-grade prospect.

Tier Two
•Jacobina Norte (Bahia, Brazil) is a large, highly-prospective property that lies contiguous to and north of the Company’s prolific Jacobina mine, with preliminary results showing excellent potential for the discovery of standalone Jacobina-type mineralization and the addition of a new mine along the greenstone basin.

•Borborema (Pernambuco, Brazil) hosts newly discovered massive sulphide mineralization that contains high-grade copper as well as gold and zinc. This high-grade mineralization is being delineated, and testing of other copper and gold targets is ongoing.

•Ivolandia (Goias, Brazil) is an advancing exploration project where drilling has defined wide low-grade mineralized zones. Exploration is focussed on oxidized, near-to-surface zones of gold mineralization that are potentially well-suited to open pit heap leach extraction.

•Domain (Manitoba, Canada) hosts iron formation gold mineralization that has been identified by limited historic drilling. It is a large property with untested iron formation and shear zone type targets that Yamana expects to begin drill testing in 2021 pending the conclusion of community consultation and permitting.

Tier Three
•North Madsen (Ontario, Canada) is located in the Red Lake district in northwest Ontario, where intrusive hosted vein and stockwork gold mineralization generates both wide, low-grade mineralized zones and higher-grade vein and shear-hosted mineralization. The mineralized zones are currently being evaluated for higher-grade mineralization that could be amenable to underground mining.

•Colider (Mato Gross, Brazil) is an early stage project in the newly developing Juruena District that has been explored for porphyry copper and precious metals deposits by several junior and senior companies. The property has defined gold-in-rock and soil anomalies associated with well preserved epithermal style mineralization in a Proterozoic arc setting. Targets are ready for first pass drill testing.

•Cambista and Cambiazo (Antofagasta, Chile) are two early-stage properties with an extensive portfolio of mineral concessions located within 100 kilometres of the Company’s El Peñón mine. Recent exploration has identified significant areas of alteration with associated anomalous gold results in soil and rock samples and limited but encouraging gold mineralization in drill intercepts. Drill testing is ongoing.

•Mara Rosa (Goias, Brazil) is a large land package marked by the same alteration footprint as the Chapada mine, with significant copper, copper-gold, and gold-only targets, several of which are drill ready. Further geochemical exploration is planned in 2021.

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