Checking in on Canada’s New Gold Mines

Most of the world’s largest new gold operations are in Canada

Last week’s Mining Forum Americas in Colorado Springs was a good opportunity to get an update on the ramp-up of Canada’s newest gold operations.

IAMGOLD CEO Renaud Adams speaking at the Mining Forum Americas

Côté

Côté Gold, in Ontario, is 70% owned by IAMGOLD (TSX: IMG) and 30% by Sumitomo Metal Mining Co.

The US$3 billion open pit operation achieved first gold in March 2024, achieved commercial production in August 2024 and achieved nameplate capacity of 36,000 tonnes per day in June this year.

An additional secondary cone crusher will be installed by the end of the year to reduce reliance on re-feed systems and improve processing costs towards the target of US$12 per tonne.

Guidance for 2025, on a 100% basis, is 360,000-400,000 ounces of gold at all-in sustaining costs of US$1600-1700 an ounce.

“I like what I see. I like the asset,” IAMGOLD president and CEO Renaud Adams told the conference.

“There is a few things that maybe we limited ourselves a bit, that now we have to fix, like the parallel feeding system, for instance, but it's very limited.

“I think Côté is, a solid 36,000 and especially with the addition of the second cone at the end of the year will really stabilise at 36,000.”

Côté is the first gold mine in Canada to be designed for the use of autonomous trucks, which Adams said improved safety and also eased labour pressures.

Adams said the focus was stabilising Côté at 36,000tpd but the company would start looking at expansion options next year.

“We would rather be a very efficient, low cost [producer] than try to grow too fast,” he said.

Goose

B2Gold (TSX: BTO) achieved first gold from Goose in Nunavut on June 30.

Last week, the company provided an update, reporting that commissioning activities were nearing completion.

Daily throughput has reached 75% of the 4000tpd design capacity and B2Gold expects to declare commercial production in the coming weeks.

Crushing capacity has been limited so mobile capacity has been brought in to maintain throughput while the company makes permanent modifications.

As a result, B2Gold has downgraded 2025 guidance for Goose to 80,000-110,000oz from 120,000-150,000oz.

“When it comes to Goose, we had the audacity to build a gold mine in northern Canada, so because of so many mines failing in the past worldwide, unfortunately during construction and also very tough to do in the north, so even with our great track record, including back in the Bema days building a gold mine in northern Russia, there was still a lot of ‘show me’ in the marketplace, which you can sort of understand, given the failings unfortunately of our industry to get it right building mines,” B2Gold CEO Clive Johnson told the Mining Forum Americas.

Goose was acquired in April 2023 via the C$1.1 billion takeover of Sabina Gold & Silver Corp and last year, the capital costs were increased by 23% to C$1.54 billion.

“We did have to increase our capital cost budget, which is unusual for us, but don't forget we took over Sabina Gold & Silver, and that was a single asset company without a lot of construction experience and their designs were not the same things we would have done,” Johnson said.

“So we took it over partway through construction, which they had started, so we had to make it a B2Gold project so when we figured out the issues we had to deal with, our capital was somewhat higher.

“But remarkably, in my mind, we were only three months behind the schedule that Sabina had put out to start gold production, so that's quite an accomplishment and it comes down to our extraordinary strong technical team.”

B2Gold still expects production of 250,000oz next year and 330,000oz in 2027.

The company expects to release a study by the end of the year on an expansion to 6000tpd.

Blackwater

Artemis Gold Inc’s (TSXV: ARTG) C$800 million Blackwater open pit mine in British Columbia poured first gold in January and achieved commercial production in May.

The operation achieved 102% of nameplate capacity of 6 million tonnes per annum in June and has produced 63,343oz of gold since the start of the year.

Guidance for 2025 is 190,000-230,000oz at AISC, from commercial production onwards, of US$670-770/oz.

“We're just getting started and we have ambitious plans to grow Blackwater to be a plus-500,000oz per year producer, and that's in the near term,” Artemis CEO Dale Andres told the Mining Forum Americas.

Just before the presentation, Artemis announced a C$100-110 million Phase 1A expansion to increase nameplate capacity by 33% to 8Mtpa by the fourth quarter of 2026.

The company will also make an investment decision on a Phase 2 expansion in the fourth quarter.

“Phase 2 will be transformational, not like Phase 1A, which is a step change,” Andres said.

Artemis has already ordered an 18 megawatt semi-autogenous grinding mill and an 18MW ball mill.

“The ball mill is already fabricated, it was a cancellation from a previous customer, and the SAG mill is one that's a copy of a mill that's in operation elsewhere, so the engineering should be very fast for us on that,” Andres said.

“We're set up very well, both to fund and to execute, on our Phase 2 project.

“It's too early to say exactly what the throughput rate will be on Phase 2. We're currently finishing that front end engineering and design, but we're getting close on that front and plan to put that out there over the next 2-3 months.”

Greenstone

Equinox Gold Corp (TSX: EQX) declared commercial production at the US$318.4 million Greenstone open pit mine in Ontario in November 2024.

The 27,000tpd operation experienced ramp-up issues last year.

“I think one of the things we'd look back on Greenstone, a great build. We have a good operating team, but we under-resourced that period of time from commissioning through to operations and arguably, it's probably a quarter or two younger than what its life cycle would anticipate,” Equinox CEO Darren Hall told the Mining Forum Americas.

“First gold in May of 2024, commercial production in November of 2024. We're probably six months younger than what that cycle would suggest where we should be.

“What we have done over the last six months in particular is we've added resources, but in particularly in the last three months we've accelerated closing the gaps between the existing human capital base and what's required, and we're starting to see benefits of that.

“Our Q3 performance has been great from a mining perspective, which was part of our early struggles in in 2025 milling performance, you know, we're starting to hit nameplate on a regular daily basis as well.”

Guidance for 2025 is 220,000-260,000oz of gold at AISC of US$1700-1800/oz.

Greenstone is expected to produce 330,000oz per year over 15 years.

Valentine

During the conference, Equinox reported the first gold pour at the C$653 million Valentine gold mine in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Hall reflected on the lessons learned from the Greenstone ramp-up.

“We wanted to make sure that we resourced that asset appropriately … so we put in place a team in Q2 of 2024, an operating team with commissioning experience that were there for the last 12 months of the build,” he said.

“We afforded them the capital in terms of critical spares, but importantly we afforded them the capital from a human resource perspective to have the operating team in place.

“So we've arguably over-resourced the commissioning capability to ensure that when the baby was born, it's a smooth delivery and we can raise it into a responsible adult, and we're seeing that played out in spades.”

Hall said the plant had achieved an average of 47% of nameplate capacity but had risen as high as 75%.

“That's just a phenomenal ramp-up curve, so we've resourced it to do that,” he said.

Equinox expects Valentine to reach full capacity of 2.5Mtpa in the June quarter of 2026.

Valentine is expected to produce 175,000-200,000oz of gold annually for the first 12 years of its 14-year reserve life.

Equinox is already looking at a Phase 2 expansion to increase plant throughput.