The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2022 - January 19, 2023
A geotechnician inspects core from drilling at Agnico Eagle's Meliadine gold mine in Nunavut.
Agnico decided to forego production activities at Hope Bay to carry out additional exploration at the company's recently acquired gold mine in northern Nunavut.
Infill drilling at Whale Tail Underground confirmed gold grades and width of stopes, with underground production to ramp up in the second half of 2022.
Agnico Eagle completed 35,606 meters of drilling at Meliadine and surrounding during the first six months of 2022.
Continuing a tradition of robust investments to unlock the enormous gold potential on its Nunavut properties, Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. budgeted more than US$90 million on exploring this politically attractive and stable jurisdiction in Canada's Far North during 2022.
Going into the year, Agnico already had an aggressive US$60.2 million exploration campaign budgeted for its three gold mine and regional exploration properties in Nunavut. Given the success of this work, by mid-year the company had decided to allocate another US$30 million to build resources and reserves in the territory.
"With these positive results, we are adding $30 million dollars to our exploration budget in 2022 as we aim to accelerate the realization of the full potential of existing operations and key projects in the company's pipeline," said Agnico Eagle President and CEO Ammar Al-Joundi.
At US$56.2 million, which includes US$24 million of the midyear added exploration spending, Agnico's new Hope Bay gold mine project was by far the largest target of the company's exploration in Nunavut last year.
After gaining ownership of the Hope Bay gold mine through the acquisition of TMAC Resources Inc. in 2021, Agnico decided to not immediately put the operation back into production. Instead, the company opted to invest the time and money needed to investigate larger production scenarios that integrates the results of an expansive exploration campaign.
Going into 2022, Hope Bay hosted 8.78 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 3.43 grams per metric ton (967,000 oz) gold; plus 10.25 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 5.09 g/t (1.68 million oz) gold.
By mid-2022, the company had completed 46,658 meters of drilling in 136 holes, primarily focused on upgrading and expanding this resource.
Results from the early 2022 drilling at Doris, the primary mining area during TMAC's operations, confirmed the potential to expand the deposit along strike to the north in the BTD Extension Zone and to the south in the Central and West Valley zones.
The early 2022 drilling also showed the potential for finding additional high-grade structures below the historical zones, including a 32.2-meter intercept in the BTD Connector zone averaging 6.9 g/t gold.
The results further demonstrate the potential to significantly grow the Doris mineral resources to support the development of additional underground exploration drifts and platforms to confirm these high-grade mineralized zone extensions ahead of the resumption of mining at Hope Bay.
This work continued into the second half of 2022.
At the Madrid deposit, which lies about nine kilometers (5.5 miles) south of Doris, surface drilling primarily targeted the inflection zone in the Naartok East area and the vertical extension of the Suluk zone. Hole HBM22-040, which was drilled outside the Naartok East inflection zone, cut seven meters averaging 7 g/t gold.
At the Boston deposit, which lies roughly another 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of the Doris processing facility, work is underway to refurbish the various facilities prior to resuming exploration drilling activities in the area this year.
Agnico is compiling and validating a historical exploration database at Boston to develop geological and structural models for the deposit that will help generate new drill targets for a 2023 campaign.
A regional field exploration program carried out at Hope Bay last year focused on the evaluation of more than 50 showings identified by previous explorers near current infrastructure in the northern portion of the Hope Bay property.
At Amaruq – a satellite mine that is part of the Meadowbank Complex – Agnico budgeted US$19.5 million for a planned 61,800 meters of exploration and resource conversion drilling during 2022.
Going into 2022, Amaruq hosted 20.56 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 3.92 g/t (2.59 million oz) gold.
The 2022 exploration drilling included resource definition drilling to evaluate the potential of extending the western end of the Whale Tail Pit toward the Mammoth gold prospect, as well as extending mineral resources at depth; testing a gap between the IVR pit and the underground pit and underground resources; and continue delineation drilling in the underground mine at Whale Tail deposit to confirm the defined stopes that are scheduled for production during the second half of 2022.
Highlights from the first half of 2022 drilling at Amaruq include:
• 20.8 meters averaging 5.5 g/t gold in hole AMQ-320-200-U1 (Whale Tail).
• 27 meters averaging 5.6 g/t gold in hole AMQ-320-200-U1 (Whale Tail).
• 20 meters averaging 6.3 g/t gold in hole AMQ-320-204-F1 (Whale Tail).
• 21.2 meters averaging 9.3 g/t gold in hole AMQ-320-205-U1A (Whale Tail).
• 9.5 meters averaging 5.4 g/t gold in hole AMQ21-2745 (IVR).
• 5.1 meters averaging 20.3 g/t gold in hole AMQ21-2728A (IVR).
• 5.2 meters averaging 13.5 g/t gold in hole AMQ21-2690A (IVR).
The remaining US$6 million of Agnico's expanded 2022 Nunavut exploration budget went to Meliadine, bringing the total 2022 exploration spending allotted for this gold property to US$14.5 million.
The 2022 exploration at Meliadine focused on increasing mineral reserves and resources to extend mine life beyond 2032.
Going into 2022, Meliadine hosted 19.16 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 5.93 g/t (3.65 million oz) gold in seven deposits – six of which are in the current mine plan. With a strike length of roughly 3,000 meters and a known depth of 812 meters, Tiriganiaq is the largest of these deposits.
Exploration at Meliadine and surrounding areas focused on deep exploration and conversion drilling at the Pump deposit; infill drilling of inferred mineral resources at depth in the Wesmeg and Tiriganiaq deposits; and exploration drilling at the F-Zone deposit.
Nearly half the drilling during the first half of 2022 focused on upgrading inferred resources in the north and south zones at Pump.
Highlights from this drilling at Pump include:
• Three meters averaging 9.4 g/t gold in hole M22-3360.
• 4.2 meters averaging 11.7 g/t gold in M22-3361.
• 5.4 meters averaging 6.4 g/t gold in M22-3362.
• 4.2 meters averaging 9.3 g/t gold in M22-3380A.
• Five meters of 7.7 g/t gold in M22-3382A.
• 3.7 meters of 20.4 g/t gold in M22-3384.
These holes are expected to convert inferred mineral resources located between two substantial areas of indicated mineral resources.
Following up on important mineral inventory identified at the limits of the Pump mineral resource in 2021, the 2022 drill program also confirmed the grade, thickness, and continuity of this new mineralized zone.
Hole M223391, which cut 5.3 meters averaging 18.8 g/t gold, is expected to extend the inferred mineral resources down plunge. Hole M22-3401, drilled into inferred mineral resource about 106 meters to the east, cut five meters averaging 10.1 g/t gold.
Elsewhere on the Meliadine property during 2022, resource conversion drilling was completed in Tiriganiaq and Wesmeg deposits from the newly developed exploration drift, along with surface drilling in the F-Zone deposit.
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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