Agnico Eagle has said that it has achieved commercial production at its Amaruq satellite deposit at the Meadowbank Complex in Canada.
According to the Canadian gold mining company, the commercial production was reached on 30 September, despite challenges related to dewatering and adverse weather conditions in the second and third quarters of 2019.
The Amaruq deposit is located nearly 50km northwest of the Meadowbank mine, which in turn is located approximately 110km by road north of Baker Lake in the Kivalliq District of Nunavut.
Agnico Eagle’s CEO Sean Boyd said: “With the start of production at both Amaruq and Meliadine in 2019, the Company is well positioned to deliver on its goal of generating net free cash flow in the second half of this year.
“This is expected to allow us to reduce net debt and potentially increase the dividend while continuing to steadily grow our business.”
The existing infrastructure Meadowbank mine that includes existing mining equipment, mill, tailings, camp and airstrip, will be used by the Amaruq project In February 2017, the development of the project was approved in by Agnico Eagle as a satellite deposit to supply ore to the existing Meadowbank mill. Using low-grade stockpiles, Amaruq ore processing began in August 2019..
In the third quarter of 2019, production at the Meadowbank Complex totaled 48,869oz of gold, which included 13,588oz from Meadowbank and pre-commercial payable gold production at Amaruq of 35,28oz.
Amaruq gold project
Located in Nunavut Territory, Canada, Amaruq gold project is an open-pit gold deposit that is estimated to contain reserves of 24.9 million tonnes (Mt), graded at 3.59 grams per tonne (g/t) Au.
Expected to have a mine life of seven years, the project is expected to produce approximately 2.5 million ounces (Moz) of gold between 2019 and 2025. The project was estimated to be developed with a cost of £289m ($350m).
