http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html
MONTREAL – The 24-year-old LaRonde gold mine in northwestern Quebec that fuelled Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.’s expansion into a six-mine international player could go on producing for another 15 years, with average annual output of 300,000 ounces, CEO Sean Boyd says.
LaRonde, deepened over the past two years, has been blessed with silver and zinc in its ore and operated at a net cash cost below $100 U.S. an ounce in 2011 – silver soared to record levels though zinc languished with the global recession. LaRonde is Canada’s deepest mine at three kilometres.
The deeper-level ore has less silver and zinc content, but average gold grades are much higher to compensate. And grade is everything, miners say.
“The transition from LaRonde I to the lower LaRonde II wasn’t easy as you ramp up new tonnages … it’s mighty hot down there,” said Boyd in an interview Friday. “But the ground conditions were good and we were applying the well-tried mining methods and equipment.”
In the first quarter this year the newly-expanded LaRonde produced 43,281 ounces of gold, up from 36,890 ounces a year earlier. For 2012 it’s expected to produce 157,500 ounces and reserves are being added constantly with more drilling. About 60 per cent of the ore being lifted comes from the deeper areas.
The high-grade Lapa mine nearby, opened in 2008, has its ore processed at LaRonde. It will probably produce 100,000 ounces in 2012 and more exploration will add reserves and extend its life.
Boyd refused to rate the chances of reopening Goldex, another LaRonde neighbour, where water flowed from unstable surface rock to the underground mine last autumn. “There was no water flooding, as some claimed, but we closed indefinitely, took a haircut and deducted Goldex from the company’s total reserves.”
For the rest of this article, please go to the Montreal Gazette website: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/LaRonde+gold+mine+could+produce+another+years/6532039/story.html
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