The Canadian miner said it had signed a new 10-year agreement with locals, which provides “additional support to the communities and greater long-term certainty for the El Gallo operation.”

El Gallo is one of the company’s four gold producing assets in the Americas. The residual heap leaching operation is expected to contribute 3-4% of the company’s gold-equivalent production this year.

McEwen is planning to breathe new life into the complex through the proposed Fenix redevelopment, which involves building a mill at the existing mine site.

The facility will initially reprocess the existing heap leach material and then transition to processing ore from open pits at the El Gallo Silver, Palmarito, Carrisalejo and El Encuentro deposits.