Sabina Gold & Silver has made a formal construction decision for the C$610m ($464.4m) Goose gold mine located at its fully-owned Back River gold project in Nunavut, Canada.
The Canadian gold mining company, which has completed all the pre-development activities, expects to launch full construction in early 2023. First gold from the mine is aimed to be produced in 2025.
According to Sabina Gold & Silver, all the major equipment and materials needed for constructing the Goose gold mine are either procured, delivered, or in transit to the Port Facility in Bathurst Inlet.
The precious metals company said that its board decided to move ahead with the construction after securing financing and completing significant activities. These include securing all major permits and authorisations for the mine’s construction and operations.
Sabina Gold & Silver president and CEO Bruce McLeod said: “We are excited to formally commit to becoming a significant Canadian gold producer. In the meantime, we have been steadily advancing the project to be in a position to commence full construction in early 2023 with first production expected in Q1, 2025.
“Our recruitment efforts continue to be successful with considerable additions to the roster (from 30 personnel in March to 142 to-date and still adding), including many key positions.
“Additionally, we are fortunate that our strategy of pre-planning and accelerating procurement efforts has reduced our exposure to inflationary impacts and supply chain issues, and we are sufficiently funded for construction.”
Earlier this year, Sabina Gold & Silver arranged more than C$800m ($609m) of project financing package. This included a construction financing package of nearly $520m raised in February 2022.
As per an updated feasibility study in 2021, the Goose gold mine is estimated to produce approximately 223,000 ounces of gold annually for about 15 years with a payback of 2.3 years.
