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Company Response

15 Apr 2021

Equinox Gold Response

...From March 23-25 the northwest region of Maranhão State, Brazil received exceptionally heavy rain (more than 450 mm)...Widespread flooding in the region washed out many roads and increased turbidity in waterways and local sources of drinking water. Along with many other lakes and rivers in the region, on March 25 a small freshwater pond on our property known as Lagoa do Pirucáua overflowed...The overflow has been incorrectly reported by some independent media outlets as a “tailings dam” failure. There was no tailings dam failure. The heavy rain event and resulting regional flooding had no impact on the operational structures at the mine...There was also no release of “toxic chemicals” ...These facts have been confirmed by regulators who visited the Aurizona site to inspect the tailings and waste rock facilities and was also published on the Brazil National Mining Agency’s website. Mine site personnel reacted quickly to support neighbouring communities...We also offered our assistance to maintain and improve the community’s water treatment plant, which was delivering filtered water within a few days following the installation of new filters. We have been communicating regularly with community members with public bulletins and frequent community meetings to encourage open dialogue...We have also installed water tanks throughout the village for clean water storage as a short-term contingency until the turbidity levels in the community’s main water reservoir have decreased, and will undertake a review of the community’s water distribution system to identify opportunities to improve the storage capacity and distribution network as a sustainable community investment project...

Timeline

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