AEM ups estimate for Nunavut’s Amaruq to 3.3 million ounces
Company believes they'll produce gold in Nunavut "over several decades"
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| Agnico Eagle workers with core samples taken from the company's highly promising Amaruq deposit, about 50 km from Meadowbank in the Kivalliq region. (PHOTO COURTESY OF AGNICO EAGLE) |
Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.‘s Amaruq deposit may now hold at least 3.3 million ounces of gold, an estimate that’s 67 per cent higher than last year’s, the company announced Feb. 10.
That means the Amaruq deposit, located about 50 kilometres from the company’s existing mine and mill at Meadowbank in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut, still holds the potential to serve as a satellite operation for Meadowbank after about 2019 or 2020.
“The company expects to ultimately develop Amaruq as a satellite operation to Meadowbank, with the potential to begin production in 2019,” Agnico Eagle said in its latest financial report..
The 3.3-million-ounce figure represents an “inferred” estimate: an educated guess that’s made at a lower level of confidence than a “proven and probable” estimate.
But it’s a dramatic increase from the two-million-ounce inferred estimate the company announced last year and this year, the company will do more work at Amaruq aimed at expanding its resource estimate and “to try to delineate a second source of open pit ore.”
And Agnico Eagle says Amaruq likely holds the potential to “have similar annual output to Meadowbank in its peak production years.”
Taking that into account, along with its large deposit at Meliadine near Rankin Inlet, this means Agnico Eagle is likely to stay committed to Nunavut for many years to come.
“With the company’s largest producing mine (Meadowbank) and two significant development assets (Meliadine and Amaruq) and other exploration projects, Nunavut has the potential to be a strategic operating platform with the ability to generate strong production and cash flows over several decades,” Agnico Eagle said.
Gold production at Meadowbank, which opened in 2010, is likely to end around the third quarter of 2018, assuming the company’s proposed Vault pit expansion goes ahead.
The Vault pit proposal, which requires an amendment to their project certificate, goes before the Nunavut Impact Review Board for a two-day public hearing in Baker Lake March 1 and March 2.
That expansion would extend Meadowbank’s current life expectancy by about a year, and delay its end date from 2017 until 2018.
As for the Meliadine project, located about 25 km from Rankin, its development work is on track to meet a possible start-up date in 2020, which represents a one-year delay from previous estimates.
Agnico Eagle spent $67 million in capital outlays at Meliadine in 2015, most of it on extending an underground ramp that extends 300 meters below the surface, permitting activities and camp operations.
In 2016, they expect to spend $96 million at Meliadine on more underground work, engineering, surface infrastructure, and the acquisition of a used camp facility.
As of Dec. 31, 2015, they estimate that Meliadine holds 3.4 million ounces of proven and probably gold reserves, 3.31 million ounces of “measured and indicated” reserves and 3.55 million ounces of “inferred” resources.
“Measured and indicated” means a lower level of confidence than a “proven and probable” and “inferred” means the lowest level of probability.
The company cautions, however, that any spending at Meliadine past 2016, including a decision to construct a mine, has yet to be approved by its board of directors.
Agnico Eagle’s financial position remains solid, despite volatile gold prices.
For the last quarter of 2015, the company reports a net loss of $15.5 million but for the full year reports net income of $24.6 million.
In 2015, they also reduced their net debt by $190 million, the financial statements said.
Source: http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674aem_ups_estimate_for_nunavuts_amaruq_to_3.3_million_ounces/
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