The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2024 - January 15, 2025
Logging core at the Meliadine gold mine in Nunavut.
Agnico Eagle completed roughly 120,000 meters of resource expansion, upgrade, and exploration drilling at its Hope Bay gold mine project during 2024.
Underground development at Agnico Eagle's Amaruq gold mine.
Looking to build upon the roughly 900,000-ounce-per-year gold production at its two operating mines in Nunavut – Meadowbank and Meliadine – Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. invested roughly $78 million into exploration at its two mines and one advance-stage project in the far northern Canadian jurisdiction.
At nearly $45 million, the largest portion of the company's 2024 Nunavut exploration budget was invested in resource expansion and upgrade drilling at Hope Bay, an already developed project that is ready for production once Agnico has established a large enough resource base to support the size of an operation it envisions.
"We don't see Hope Bay as a small thing," Agnico Eagle Mines President and CEO Ammar Al-Joundi informed analysts and investors early in 2024.
Agnico Eagle completed roughly 120,000 meters of resource expansion, upgrade, and exploration drilling at its Hope Bay gold mine project during 2024.
Agnico gained ownership of Hope Bay through the 2021 acquisition of TMAC Resources Inc., which had developed an underground mine and commissioned a mill there.
The focus of Agnico's exploration at Hope Bay has shifted from expanding resources at Doris, the site of the mining carried out by TMAC, to Madrid, which lies about nine kilometers (5.5 miles) south of Doris.
Going into 2024, Hope Bay hosted 16.22 million metric tons of measured and indicated reserves averaging 6.52 grams per metric ton (3.4 million oz) gold.
The project hosts an additional 10.73 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 3.64 g/t (1.26 million oz) gold; plus 12.11 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 5.41 g/t (2.11 million oz) gold.
Based on the current resources and the success of recent drilling, Agnico is evaluating the potential of expanding Hope Bay to a 4,000- to 6,000-metric-ton-per-day operation, substantially larger than the 2,000 t/d processing plant currently in place.
To build a resource base to support the larger operation, Agnico invested roughly $44.6 million in exploration at Hope Bay, which includes a midyear $22.6 million addition to the original $22 million budget for the project.
"We remain focused on realizing the full potential of our assets through continuous improvement and by advancing our pipeline of projects and supplemental exploration program," said Al-Joundi.
By the end of the third quarter, crews had completed more than 99,000 meters of drilling at Hope Bay. This drilling primarily involved infill and expansion drilling at Patch 7 zone, where drilling has cut some of the widest thicknesses and highest gold grades encountered at Madrid.
Highlights from 2024 drilling at Madrid include:
• 14 meters averaging 10 g/t gold in hole HBM24-105 (expansion).
• Five meters averaging 14.1 g/t gold in hole HBM24-189 (expansion).
• 25.8 meters averaging 71 g/t gold in hole HBM24-206a (infill).
• 11.2 meters averaging 5.4 g/t gold in hole HBM24-211 (infill).
• 18.4 meters averaging 8.9 g/t gold in hole HBM24-232 (infill).
• 10.9 meters averaging 9 g/t gold in hole HBM24-241 (expansion).
• 3.7 meters averaging 15 g/t gold in hole HBM24-249 (expansion).
A nearly 1.5-mile road was built at Patch 7, which will allow for more efficient winter drilling of this high-grade area of the Madrid deposit.
Agnico Eagle Mines Vice President of Exploration Guy Gosselin anticipates that the drilling carried out over the winter will allow the company to enhance a project development scenario for Hope Bay, which will be included in a project update expected around the end of the year.
In early July, Agnico also acquired North Arrow Minerals' Oro gold property, which covers a northeastern extension of the Hope Bay gold belt, for C$1.75 million ($1.25 million).
Agnico's remaining roughly $33 million of exploration investment in Nunavut targeted the expansion and definition of resources at its operating mines in the territory.
This included more than 100,000 meters of drilling at Meliadine, which entered 2024 with 18.26 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 5.91 g/t (3.47 million oz) gold.
Over the first nine months of 2024, this mine produced 284,238 oz of gold, putting it on pace to top 280,000 oz once the final three months are tallied.
Much of the 2024 drilling at Meliadine targeted deep exploration and conversion drilling at the Tiriganiaq and Pump deposits, as well as infill drilling to upgrade inferred mineral resources at the Wesmeg North deposit.
Highlights from this drilling include:
• Five meters averaging 12.8 g/t gold in hole ML425-9204-D6 (Triganiaq).
• 11.8 meters averaging 15.1 g/t gold in hole ML425-9323-D15 (Triganiaq).
• 5.2 meters averaging 30.5 g/t gold in hole ML425-9950-D26 (Triganiaq).
• 6.5 meters averaging 14.1 g/t gold in hole ML400-9970-D19 (Wesmeg North).
• 9.9 meters averaging 7.5 g/t gold in hole M24-3901A (Pump).
• 3.8 meters averaging 20.4 g/t gold in hole M24-3936 (Wesmeg North).
An exploration ramp to further expand and define resources at Wesmeg and Wesmeg North is currently being developed.
Underground development at Agnico Eagle's Amaruq gold mine.
Meadowbank, Agnico's oldest mine in Nunavut, produced an impressive 387,695 oz of gold through the first nine months of 2024, culminating in the pouring of the five-millionth ounce of gold from the Meadowbank mill in September.
The half-a-million-ounce-of-gold-per-year pace set over the past two years at Meadowbank is expected to fade as mineral reserves dwindle at Amaruq, a satellite mine that is currently trucking ore about 50 kilometers (31 miles) to be processed through the mill.
Going into 2024, Amaruq hosted 15.36 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 3.72 g/t (1.84 million oz) of gold.
An approval of expanding the IVR surface mine at Amaruq added two years to the life of the mine, extending it out to 2028, and exploration has encountered underground resources with the potential to further extend the operation.
During 2024, Agnico invested roughly $2 million to test resource expansion targets that could provide ore that can feed the Meadowbank mill beyond 2028.
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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