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Ontario important to Agnico Eagle’s current & future plans

Dec 9, 2022


Agnico Eagle has earned a reputation as a partner of choice within the industry, of being a reliable operator with respect for others and for building trust and sharing opportunities with all their stakeholders.
Agnico Eagle said while speaking at the Central Canada Resource Expo in Thunder Bay, “we will all benefit from our merged financial strength and our extensive pipeline of development and exploration projects to drive future growth. We will benefit from our shared roots, corporate cultures, and sustainable mining practices and finally, we will benefit from our combined commitment to build strong, mutually beneficial relationships with our many stakeholders, support local government, local indigenous communities and businesses and maximize local employment.”
Agnico believes that environmental, social and governance considerations are not a burden, but an opportunity to improve their performance and sustain their businesses over the long term. For 65 years, they’ve been on a journey to build a high-quality business for the benefit of all. Already Agnico Eagle is recognized as leaders in environmental performance with one of the lowest energy intensities and GHG emissions in the gold space and one of the lowest water consumption intensities in the mining industry.
Agnico Eagle has been once again recognized in 2022 by Corporate Knights as one of the 100 most sustainable corporations and one of the best 50 corporate citizens in Canada. Agnico is committed to achieving net zero carbon by 2050 or sooner and are currently mapping out key milestones to achieve their carbon neutral goals.


ESG strategy is built on four key pillars:

1. Engaging with our communities and indigenous
    partners
2. Pursuing innovation with the adoption of new
    technologies and embracing outside the box thinking
3. Identifying and eliminating or mitigating risks to protect
    our operations employees, communities and the
    environment
4. Adapting to new realities and evolving to meet new
    challenges.


 
An excellent example of their commitment to lowering their GHG emissions and embracing innovation is their adoption of the battery electric vehicles that are at the Macassa Mine in Kirkland Lake. The Macassa Mine was among the first mines globally to introduce battery electric vehicles starting in 2012. At the Detour Lake mine property, they are currently evaluating the potential to implement a trolley assist processing system for the haul trucks in the open pits.
Agnico Eagle strives to be the partner of choice within the mining industry and are committed to fostering positive and collaborative relationships with local communities. As early as possible, they seek to engage and partner with local stakeholders and indigenous groups to assess the levels of social acceptability and potential impacts of the project, within the voice of the host community. The approach aims to mitigate potential negative impacts, discover opportunities for collaboration, avoid potential conflict and build community relationships. Agnico Eagle appreciates the need and overall benefit of engaging with traditional owners and have a commitment to building respectful relationships.

 

Macassa a potential regional mining complex

Detour underground

 

Agnico Eagle has a solid economic footprint in Ontario and are committed to investing and growing the business.
In 2021 alone Agnico Eagle spent more than $1.58 billion on goods and services in the province approximately $378 million of that with indigenous businesses. The company donated more than $3.7 million to local communities in Ontario and invested more than $115 million in exploration projects at Detour Lake, Macassa, Upper Beaver and Hammond Reef. $352 million was spent on wages and benefits.
Agnico Eagle’s flagship mine is the Detour Lake Mine. It is the second largest gold producing mine in Canada with the largest gold reserves, substantial growth potential and has a very high profitable production rate. In July, Agnico announced a new evaluation show showing a longer life and lower risk mine plan that added 38% gold reserves, which increases the mine life by 10 years until 2052.
Additional scenarios are being evaluated to potentially develop an underground mine and increase mill throughput beyond the 28 million tonnes per year after 2025. The long-term vision is to increase production to 1 million ounces, or more per year, and an initial assessment of this potential is expected to be completed in late 2023. Several projects are underway at Detour Lake to progressively increase the mill throughput, including prescreening before the secondary Crusher, construction of additional CIP leach tanks, an upgrade of the gravity circuit, construction of an assay lab and an upgrade of the 230 KV main substation.
Looking forward, the company continues to have positive results with the drill bit at Detour Lake. Historically there was limited diamond drilling outside of the known mineral reserve areas. But since 2020, they have identified a broad and continuous quarter of mineralization, extending over four kilometers from the main pit through the Saddle Zone to the planned West Pit to a depth of at least 800 meters below surface with the system remaining open. Another key target includes the area west of the existing West Pit mineral reserves, an area that had seen limited previous drilling. They’re also evaluating options to optimize and potentially increase the mining and milling rates to 32 million tonnes per year and assessing the potential for an underground operation.
The Macassa Mine in Kirkland Lake has proven and probable gold reserves of 1.9 million ounces. In Q2, the planned work on the #4 Shaft project remained on schedule and the preparation of the production and service hoists were completed. They are now on level 6300s, where the focus is on developing the new conveyor drift and the loading pocket. Completion of the #4 Shaft project is expected towards the end of 2022. The upgrade of the mechanical ventilation system has progressed as planned and is expected to increase ventilation capacity from approximately 300,000 cubic feet per minute to 750,000 cubic feet per minute in order to support the planned increase in underground production in 2023-2024. At the end of the second quarter of 2022, the fourth and final ventilation raise was completed.
Looking forward Agnico sees the potential of the Macassa to being a regional mining complex with the Amalgamated Kirkland zone. They are currently assessing opportunities to incorporate the Amalgamated Kirkland zone into the mine plan starting in 2024. A 1.3 km exploration ramp from the new surface area is being developed in order to assess and infill drill the Amalgamated Kirkland deposit. Exploration drilling is ongoing to define and extend mineralization at the South Mine Complex SMC zone the Main Break and the 04 Break.
Agnico’s three most important projects in the pipeline are  the West Detour, Upper Beaver and Hammond Reef.
The West Detour project is a proposed expansion of the operating Detour Lake mine, and it’s currently in the permitting stage. The expansion of the reserves at the Detour Lake mine will help maintain and extend the length of employment opportunities. Currently the mine employs approximately 2100 people. With this expansion project the West and North Pits are planned to remain active during a period of approximately 12 years 2025 to 2036. And the expansion of the existing pit extends the life of the mine to beyond 2040.
For Upper Beaver, they are currently evaluating opportunities, including potential synergies with the Macassa Mine, or the whole complex. They want to develop the Upper Beaver deposit as they believe it has a potential to be a low-cost mine with annual production in the range of 150,000 ounces to 200,000 ounces of gold.
Agnico Eagle completed a positive internal technical study at Hammond Reef in 2020 and the average annual gold production over the expected 12-year mine life is forecast to be approximately 272,000 ounces at an average total cash costs per ounce of $748 and an average all in sustaining cost per ounce of $806. Initial capital costs are approximately $1 billion.
Agnico believes there are great opportunities to grow their operations in Ontario and look forward to working very closely with their team partners, the suppliers and stakeholders to advance their mutual interest in developing resources for the benefit of future generations. “Working with a wide range of stakeholders will be critical to our success and our ability to grow and innovate for the future,” stated Agnico Eagle.
In April the Detour Lake mine celebrated reaching 5 million ounces since commercial production began in 2013. This achievement would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of not only the employees, but also the contractors, indigenous partners, the community stakeholders and shareholders.
As they come together to build the new gold standard, Agnico will continue to live their values of trust, respect, equality, family and responsibility. These values express who they are and guide them in everything they do. Even as the new Agnico Eagle grows and expands around the globe, their goals and values don’t change. They believe in family, authenticity and simplicity. They believe in working as a team and treating each other equally, fairly and with respect, respect for woman respect for diversity, equality and inclusion and respect for the physical and mental wellbeing of their people.

 

For this article and more visit the digital copy of: The Northern Ontario Mining Report

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Tags: Northern Ontario / Operational Updates / Gold / All Articles