Gold Reserve has entered into a partnership with Conservation International (CI) to advance the company’s strong commitment to environmental and social responsibility. The partnership will involve preserving biodiversity in and around Gold Reserve’s Brisas project in Venezuela and support the development of best practice tools for integrating biodiversity information into the business decision making processes.
Cia Aurifera Brisas del Cuyuni, the Venezuelan subsidiary of Gold Reserve, has also signed a Letter of Intent with CI Venezuela outlining commitments, whereby the two organizations will work together to institute programs pertaining to biodiversity and sustainable agro-forestry in the upper Cuyuni River basin located in the State of Bolivar in southeastern Venezuela near the Guyana border. This effort will include extensive biodiversity assessments and monitoring efforts to understand and protect the biodiversity of the project area as well as a program of work aimed at empowering local communities to develop sustainable agro-forestry.
The company has also finalized an agreement with CI to support the development of decision making tools and methodologies that guide companies such as Gold Reserve through a process by which they assess the ongoing environmental impacts and assess their biodiversity, take action to avoid, mitigate or offset this impact, and monitor their achievements. This support will facilitate the development of a biodiversity offset strategy for the Brisas Project in conjunction with the Business and Biodiversity Offset Program (BBOP) (more information on BBOP can be found at: www.forest-trends.org/biodiversityoffsetprogram ).
“We are pleased to be working with CI,” said Doug Belanger, President of Gold Reserve. “Our strong relationship with CI will empower our employees and provide them substantial experience while furthering the company’s commitment to the Equator Principles and responsible environmental stewardship.”
CI is a nonprofit international organization which operates in 40 countries around the world and applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth’s richest regions of plant and animal diversity in the biodiversity hotspots, high-biodiversity wilderness areas as well as important marine regions around the globe. See www.conservation.org
Brisas has NI-43-101 reserves of 485 Mt of ore grading 0.67 g/t Au and 0.13% Cu. The mine plan anticipates using conventional truck and shovel mining methods with the processing of ore at full production of 70,000 t/d, yielding an average annual production of 456,000 oz of gold and 60 Mlb of copper for a mine life of 18.5 years. Using copper as a byproduct, operating costs are expected to be $126/oz (using $1.80 copper).
