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 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.
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