A gold mine near Gogama is moving ahead with construction, according to IAMGOLD president and CEO Gord Stothart.
The company announced today that the Côté Gold Project, which is a joint venture between IAMGOLD and Sumitomo Metal Mining, has received approvals for the site located about half way between Sudbury and Timmins, about 20 kilometres southwest of Gogama.
“It’s been a long road for us to get to this point and there’s lots and lots of work to be done from here going forward,” said Stothart in a virtual press conference.
During the construction period from 2020 to 2023, IAMGOLD said there will be more than 1,300 jobs. When the mine is operating, it will mean about 450 full-time jobs.
The current potential for the open pit mine is 18 years.
“We do have an ongoing exploration effort at Côté and we have enjoyed some pretty good success and have identified a potential ore body within about a kilometre and a half of the existing Côté ore body that we’re in the process of delineating right now and fingers crossed that will allow us to extend even beyond the 18 years. We have a big land property there and it’s exciting for us,” he said.
The cost to build the Côté Gold Project is around $2 billion. Stothart said that will be spent between IAMGOLD and Sumitomo, a 30-per-cent owner in the project.
“Over the life of the operation the project should generate around $10 billion CAD in GDP for the region, including about $5 billion in wages over the life of the operation,” he said.
Last year, IAMGOLD signed an impact benefit agreement with Mattagami First Nation and Flying Post First Nation.
“I’m looking forward to this, our community’s looking forward to this project and I feel excitement in the air today as we get started this morning,” said Chad Boissoneau, Mattagami First Nation chief in the press conference.
In a news release, he said the community is celebrating the announcement.
"This is the culmination of years of diligent work on both sides. Côté Gold will have a significant positive impact for future generations. There are considerable business development, education and training opportunities for our community and we are pleased we can move forward with these," he said.
Flying Post First Nation Chief Murray Ray is thrilled about the announcement.
"We have an open and trusting dialogue with IAMGOLD and are excited about the opportunities it will create for our community. We already have contracts in place for construction and site preparation work and look forward to growing these opportunities," he said in a news release.
Stothart said specific quotas haven't been set for how many Indigenous jobs are created with the project.
During the construction phase, he said a proportion is being fulfilled by First Nation companies and organizations.
“We’ve actually already started on that. Some of the early work we’ve done on camp construction and on tree clearing has been done with First Nations companies and we expect to continue that. As we move into operation a lot of our effort in the next while will be to help with training and development of people from the communities, especially First Nations, to take on the roles of an operating mine,” he said.
“A lot of Indigenous peoples have been involved in the operations and there’s some good skilled trades out there and it’s our expectation that Côté will be a really attractive place for a lot of them to be working at."
For a timeline at the site, Stothart said there will be pre-construction activity over the summer and construction is expected to ramp up in the fourth quarter.
During the first six months, he expects they will grow from 150 up to 400 people. Most of the work will be earth-moving contracts preparing for tailing storage facility, plant site, min and pit areas, and other works.
In the second quarter of 2021, he said they'll see a "significant ramp up to over 1000 people and we’ll stay through close to the end of the construction period."
“Actual mining operations, I believe, are slated to start towards the end of 2021. We’ll be starting to have mining equipment cleaning up the pit later next year,” he said.
Stothart said they intend to use autonomous mining for haulage and drilling.
"We won’t be the first mine in Canada, we’ll probably be the third mine,” he said.
Technology, he said, provides opportunities for the mine of the future, and changes the "suite of employment for the workforce somewhat."
