Equinox Gold (TSX: EQX) has cleared the major obstacle that idled its Los Filos mine for more than two years, signing 20-year land access agreements with all three communities that host the operation in Mexico.
The agreements have been signed with the communities of Carrizalillo, Mezcala and Xochipala, which give the company a two-decade runway to restart the mine and, in time, expand it. Equinox has already begun the groundwork for a gradual restart of heap leach operations while technical teams study options to lift annual output.
Alongside the surface agreements, the parties settled on an overall policy covering labour and supply services. The restart itself comes with a longer to-do list, including environmental remediation, permitting, rehiring and retraining the workforce, and renegotiating supplier contracts.
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Darren Hall, chief executive officer, framed the agreements as a foundation rather than a finish line. “These new 20-year agreements reflect a shared commitment to responsible operations and sustainable benefits over time and provide an important foundation for strengthening our long-term relationship with the communities and fostering an environment that supports future investment and long-term value creation,” Hall said.
Beyond the immediate restart, Equinox is eyeing a larger prize. The company plans to advance engineering on a carbon-in-leach processing facility and to revisit project economics last modelled at a $1,450 gold price, well below where the metal trades today. Based on a 2022 estimate, Los Filos holds 5.4 million ounces of reserves and a further 7.9 million ounces of measured and indicated resources, with what the company describes as meaningful exploration upside.
The progress marks a turn from April 2025, when Equinox indefinitely suspended the mine after its access agreement with Carrizalillo lapsed on March 31. Mezcala and Xochipala had signed new long-term deals by then, but the lone holdout left the operation stranded.
Los Filos was a major contributor to Equinox’s production profile in its last full year of production. In 2024 it produced 170,369 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of $2,185 per ounce. As it stands, Equinox has excluded any Los Filos production from its 2026 outlook of 700,000 to 800,000 ounces, and says it will provide further updates as technical work advances through a phased de-risking approach.
Equinox Gold last traded at $13.37 on the TSX.
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