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Laurent Mathiot visits Yacari and Victoria

Laurent Mathiot, President of OCIM, visited the two processing plants in Yacari and Victoria. Accompanied by Ivan Salas, Head of Operations at OCIM in Peru, he was able to observe each stage of the gold production process. He was able to see the rapid ramp-up in production, which restarted in June, just three months after the acquisition of the plants.

Published 16 October 2025 . Reading 2 min

Laurent Mathiot and Ivan Salas are welcomed aboard the Yacari plant by the local team.

Ivan Salas shows Laurent Mathiot a bag of activated carbon for the lixivation process at Yacari plant.

The ore is first crushed before being immersed in tanks filled with a cyanide solution where it is dissolved before being brought into contact with activated carbon, which selectively absorbs the gold.

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Laurent Mathiot stands in front of the tanks, which were quickly restored to full working order after being severely damaged.

Cyanuric acid water is stored in a retention basin before being treated and recycled. This practice ensures that no polluting or toxic substances are released into the environment.

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Laurent Mathiot and Ivan Salas are welcomed at the Victoria plant, where activated carbon is processed until the smelting of doré bars.

All waste produced within the plant is recovered and recycled (here, bins for recovering metal, glass, paper, organic waste, etc.). These bins are an example of compliance with the strictest hygiene, safety, and environmental protection standards.

Laurent Mathiot helps a member of the local team open the valve of the high-temperature furnace in which gold sludge has been melted. The molten metal is then poured into molds to form doré bars (gold and silver alloy). The gold sludge had previously been obtained by washing activated carbon with acid before being placed in an electrolysis cell.

Here one of the molds into which molten metal is poured.

A refinery worker hands a doré bar to Laurent Mathiot after the smelting process is completed.