Orla Mining may be new to the mining scene in Ontario, but the Musselwhite gold mine is not new to them.
The Vancouver company’s pending acquisition of the remote northwestern Ontario underground mine from Newmont probably sent more than a few people scurrying to Google last month to dig into the details of the expanding seven-year-old outfit.
Unlike other mining newcomers to the region, Orla isn’t buying a broken operation that was mismanaged and in dire need of cash-infused resurrection. Musselwhite is one that, by all accounts, is well-run operation that no longer fit into Newmont’s ambitions to invest in so-called Tier 1 assets.
Newmont placed Musselwhite and its Porcupine mines in Timmins up for sale last February. Orla, of which Newmont is a major shareholder, stepped up to secure an $850-million deal in November for the 27-year-old underground mine, 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay. The deal closes in early 2025.
Orla believes Musselwhite has a lot more gold to give and, with a few operational tweaks here and there, new ownership believes it can become a low cost and bigger producer.
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