Yamana Gold, Inc. is a Canadian-based gold producer. It began operations in 2003 with large gold production, gold development, exploration properties and land positions in Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Yamana Gold seeks to build on this base through the development of new mines, existing operating mine expansions, throughput increases, in addition to advancing its exploration properties, and by targeting other gold consolidation opportunities with the primary focus being on its American-based operations.

With the purchase of other gold mining companies, Yamana Gold added several mining properties in 2006, like RNC Gold and Desert Sun. Further planning for exploration and development includes the targeting significant levels of copper mining activities starting in 2007. Other mining properties that Yamana had added with the purchase of mining companies in 2005, 2006, and 2007 are Meridian Gold, Viceroy, Meridian Gold, and Northern Orion. The portfolio of Yamana Gold includes:

1) Seven operating gold mines namely: Minera Florida, Gualcamayo, Fazenda Brasileiro, Chapada, El Peñón, and Jacobina, and an indirect interest of 12.5% in the Alumbrera mine and

2) The many advanced and stage projects near development and exploration properties in Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil.

The major corporate members of Yamana Gold are: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Peter Marrone, who is also the founder of Yamana Gold, Ludovico Costa, the President and the Chief Operating Officer, and Charles B. Main, Executive Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer.

Chapada is one of the seven operating gold mines, is an open pit gold-copper mine located northwest of Brasília in Goiás State, and in 2007 it began commercial production. In 2010 the annual capacity of the flotation plant was increased to 22 million tones. It was a significant 10% increase over 2009 and was 38% higher than the feasibility study throughput level. With the integration of the output from the Suruca gold deposit, the mine was updated to maintain the increased throughput level for the next 15 years, early in 2011. Suruca, which was discovered in 2009, is located six kilometers northeast of Chapada. It is expected to start its contribution to the production in 2013. In 2010 production of gold was 135,613 ounces, and copper 149 million pounds of copper. The estimated and forecast target of production to be achieved by the end of 2011 is 130,000-140,000 ounces of gold, and 145-160 million pounds of copper. The estimated time period for the mine to last is more than 15 years.

Yamana Gold’s operating and development-stage mines contain some 19 million ounces of proven and probable gold reserves and produce nearly 1 million ounces annually. It also mines silver. In 2006 Yamana Gold had a gold production of 30,000 ounces; this doubled in 2007 and again in 2008. Yamana Gold began production in the Gualcamayo mine in Argentina in 2009, which has an estimated 2.4 million ounces of gold reserves. The target of the company is an annual production of 2 million ounces by 2012.