Agnico Eagle’s Meliadine mine officially launched commercial activity on May 14

By Nunatsiaq News

Agnico Eagle’s second Kivalliq gold mine is officially in business.

Agnico Eagle Mines’ Meliadine mine near Rankin Inlet, the company’s largest gold deposit in the territory, started commercial production on May 14.

The company intends to produce some 230,000 ounces of gold at Meliadine by the end of 2019.

The long-awaited mine, which cost more than $900 million in capital expenditures, is expected to employ about 900 staff, at least 350 of whom will be Inuit.

“Congratulations to all of our employees at Meliadine for achieving commercial production ahead of the original schedule and below the initial capital budget,” said Agnico Eagle Mines’ CEO Sean Boyd in a May 30 release.

The launch of commercial production also marks the period when Agnico Eagle starts paying royalties to the Inuit associations who oversee the project’s Inuit Impact and Benefits Agreement.

Over the next 15 years, the company expects to pay roughly $450 million in royalties and fees to both the Kivalliq Inuit Association and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. for its Nunavut-based mines.

Agnico Eagle also plans to move forward on commercial production at its Amaruq–Whale Tail property, a satellite operation located about 50 kilometres northwest of its other Nunavut operation, Meadowbank.

As mining winds down at Meadowbank, ore from the Amaruq project will let the company continue with its existing mill at Meadowbank, near Baker Lake, until at least 2026.

“With Meliadine ramping up production over the balance of the year and Amaruq on schedule to achieve commercial production in the third quarter of 2019, the company is well positioned to achieve its gold production target of 1.75 million ounces for 2019,” Boyd said in the release.