Kinross targets 2029 for “Hemlo-like” production at Great Bear project

By Kevin Vincent

Kinross Gold’s $1.4 Billion takeover of the Great Bear in northwestern Ontario is still a few hibernations away from production.

Kinross bought the highly-touted Red Lake gold mine in 2022 and has since launched an aggressive exploration campaign to broaden the resource. In a recent interview with Bloor Street Capital, CFO Andrea Freeborough outlined the big picture. “Just one year from closing the acquisition, we did put out the initial resource, which was over 5 million ounces in total, including 2.7 million of indicated and 2.3 mil- lion in the inferred category.”

However, production isn’t booked for another 6 years. “Working backwards, we’ve talked about production in 2029 and we get questioned a lot about whether we can shorten that timeline. That’s the permitting timeline that we’ve allowed for – it’s realistic. Not overly conservative.”

Freeborough says the permitting is based on similar projects or what others are anticipating. What we will do is make sure that we’ve got all of our information ready ahead of time, as early as possible.

We’re developing good working relationships with First Nations to make sure that we have a good understanding of their needs. And I would say that if we do happen to get the permits ahead of the timeline that we have in the schedule, then we’d be ready to start construction early, but we just can’t count on that at this point.” of gold at a cash cost of $868 per ounce in 2024, its first full year of production.

Freeborough says it’s important to note that the resource is largely within the first 500 meters of drilling. “We have drilled beyond that to up to and beyond one kilometer and we continue to see high grade mineralization. And so, we expect that to continue to add to the resource down the road,” she added.

Ontario’s Minister of Mines George Pirie and MPP & Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Mines Anthony Leardi were treated to a site visit of the Great Bear project in Red Lake. This visit was an excellent opportunity to show the exciting progress being made at the project, to detail their project plans and share the meaningful work being done in the community.

Argonaut is also pursuing additional growth opportunities at Magino. The company is scheduled to begin a 12 to 15-month exploration and reserve development program, in the third quarter, to convert open pit resources to reserves within the current resource pit cone, test deep underground high-grade targets, and test open pit targets along

“Last year (2022) we put out drill result updates with each quarter after the acquisition. We’ll plan to do that again this year. We know the market is always looking for information on Great Bear and we’re certainly excited about it,” she said.

Freeborough says Kinross had their eyes on Great Bear for about three years before pulling the trigger on the acquisition.

“We were pretty confident about what we saw there strike west of the current deposit. In parallel, a review of mill optimization and expansion opportunities will commence in the third quarter, to potentially raise throughput rates and increase annual production. Metrics from Magino’s NI 43-101 technical report provide a static base case for analysis.

Argonaut Gold is a mid-tier gold mining company headquartered in Toronto. It was founded in 2007 and has since focused on explora- tion, development, and production of gold and other precious metals. The company operates several mines in North America and places emphasis on responsible mining practices and community engagement. They strive to operate in a socially and environmentally responsible manner, working closely with local communities and stakeholders to minimize their environmental impact and contribute to local development.