The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Victoria Gold celebrates meaningful milestone on Canada Day North of 60 Mining News – July 3, 2020
Eagle Gold Mine in the Yukon achieves commercial production on Canada Day.
John McConnell
Victoria Gold Corp. celebrated Canada Day with the declaration of commercial production at its Eagle Gold Mine in Canada's Yukon Territory.
Since pouring the first bar of gold at Eagle last September, Victoria has been steadily scaling up operations at the Yukon Mine. With mining, crushing, processing, and maintenance operations performing at a high level, the exploration turned gold producing company declared commercial production.
"Site activities continue to progress well, and all facilities and operations are now at or approaching design capacity. This consistent production combined with materially positive operating cash flow has allowed Victoria management to declare commercial production as of July 1, 2020.", said Victoria Gold President and CEO John McConnell.
This achievement not only coincides with Canada Day but the start of a new quarter, which will provide a measure of the operation's commercial performance over the next three months.
Eagle is expected to produce an average of 210,000 ounces of gold annually over the mine's initial 10-year mine life. This plan is based on 123 million metric tons of reserves averaging 0.67 g/t (2.66 million oz) gold, according to a feasibility study completed in 2016.
Ore from this open pit deposit is stacked on a heap leach pad where the gold is dissolved and recovered at the operation's processing facility.
In the midst of ramping up to commercial production, the new operations team at Eagle were challenged with COVID-19. While worker availability and other challenges related to the pandemic slightly impacted productivity at the mine, quick adjustments and establishment of protocols allowed the operation to continue without downtime.
Victoria continues to follow strict COVID-19 protocols at the Eagle Mine site as well as across the Company's work locations. Yukon is currently in the second phase of lifting COVID-19 restrictions, which means workers from Yukon and British Columbia are no longer required to self-isolate prior to going to the site. All workers from outside the Canadian territories and BC, however, will self-isolate in Whitehorse for 14 days prior to traveling to site.
Workers at Eagle Mine site are continuing to work on a four-week-in-four-week-out rotation, rather than the pre-Covid-19 two-week-in-two-week-out schedule.
Despite the longer work rotations, the Eagle Gold crew has elevated Yukon's newest large gold mine to commercial production.
"Achievement of commercial production is a meaningful and memorable accomplishment that the entire team is proud to be part of," said McConnell. "Special thanks goes to so many contributors, including the local communities and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun who have helped us make Eagle a reality."
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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