New gold mine 'truly exciting for the region'
Côté mine project heralded for providing needed economic boost
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GOGAMA – IAMGOLD Corporation’s plan to move forward with its Côté Gold Project near here is being heralded as a potential economic boost to mining suppliers throughout the northeast.
IAMGOLD announced the joint-venture project with Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. of Japan in June 2017, highlighting Sumitomo’s first investment in Canada in more than 50 years.
The company recently announced it has received all the necessary approvals to begin construction this year of the open-pit gold mine.
Côté is described to be one of Canada’s largest gold projects with an initial capital expenditure close to $1 billion.
IAMGOLD recently stated the mine life is a minimum of 18 years and the project will create 1,000 construction jobs and 450 full-time jobs when Côté enters production. However, ongoing exploration may extend the life of mine.
Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger calls the mine a game-changer for the northeast.
“A project of this magnitude, in our own backyard, combined with our world-class mining service and supply companies, will see amazing local benefits to our local job market and economy,” Bigger was quoted in a release.
IAMGOLD has said construction will ramp up this year and continue over a three-year period.
The mine is expected to be in commercial production by the end of 2023, though the extraction of gold will start early next year while the pit is still in the construction phase.
“The current potential life of the mine is 18 years,” says Gordon Stothart, the miner’s CEO. “We do have an ongoing exploration effort at Cote and we have enjoyed some pretty good success and identified a potential ore body within about a kilometre-and-a-half of the existing Cote ore body that we’re in the process of delineating right now and, fingers crossed, that will allow us to extend even beyond the 18 years.
“We have a big land property there and it’s exciting for us.”
Stothart outlined some of the work that is immediately ahead.
“We’ll do some pre-construction activities over the summer here,” he said. “We really expect the construction to ramp up starting in Q4 (fourth quarter).The first six months or so, we’ll be ramping up from somewhere starting at around 150 up to 400 people, mostly earth work activities or earth-moving contracts, preparation for the tailing storage facility, preparation of the plant site, preparation of the mine pit areas and other works.”
In the second quarter of 2021, the workforce should grow to more than 1,000 people, he said, “and we’ll stay there to close to the end of the construction period.”
Commissioning should be completed in the second half of 2023.
“We’ll obviously be trying to shorten that if at all possible and get up to commercial production in the second half of 2023 and to full production in 2024,” said the CEO.
“Actual mining operations, I believe, are slated to start toward the end of 2021. So, we’ll be starting to have mining equipment cleaning up the pit later next year.”
Stothart said the cost to build the project is around $2 billion Cdn.
“We’ll be spending that between Sumitomo and ourselves,” he said. “Over the life of the operation, the project should generate around $10 billion Canadian in GDP (gross domestic product) for the region, including about $5 billion in wages over the life of the operation.”
Apart from the benefits to the company and immediate area, “I believe it’s truly exciting for the region,” he said.
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