Now the Vancouver-based company can set a target date for its 2019 resource expansion and target testing drill program.

Brazil has a backlog of more than 20,000 areas where mining rights expired or were otherwise lost by their previous holders, equivalent to roughly 10% of the areas with pending mining permits.

Earlier this year, the company completed a preliminary economic assessment of its main Ivana deposit at Amarillo Grande.

Yamana Gold's executive chairman Peter Marrone reflected on the many changes initiated at Yamana over the past few years.

The Chapada mine, in the northwest state of Goiás, began production in 2007 and is expected to churn out about 54,500 tonnes of copper and 100,000 ounces of gold this year.

Mining activity in May dropped 2.3% compared with the same month in 2018 as the sector continued to confront sharply falling ore grades at its largest deposits.

The move was a precautionary action after it ran a new risk evaluation of a dam close to the mine.