Goldcorp – Éléonore mine: [First Nations] People in partnership in northern Quebec – by John O’Hanlon (Business Excellence Mining – June 4, 2013

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ADVERTORIAL

James Bay, a tongue of water licking out between Ontario and Quebec, is by any standards remote. The Cree nation that lives on its shores have staked their claim, not always without difficulty, to such economic development as has taken place in the region, but today the greatest impact on their way of life is undoubtedly mining.

Nobody coming into this area should doubt the need to involve the Cree, as traditional owners of the land, in their plans. Perhaps the highest profile local business to have been developed is Air Creebec, founded in 1982 and today carrying more than 60,000 passengers a year – it’s a wholly-owned Cree enterprise, and its largest customer is Goldcorp, one of the world’s fastest growing senior gold producers, with operations and development projects located throughout the Americas. Goldcorp plans to fly more than a third of that number to its Éléonore project during 2013.

A Canadian company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Goldcorp employs more than 16,000 people worldwide however one of its most significant current projects is its fast developing Éléonore project located some 200 kilometres inland from the Cree centre of Wemindji on the east cost of James Bay. When it comes into operation in 2014, according to figures from a pre-feasibility study published in 2011, it should be processing 3,500 tonnes of gold bearing ore a day, extracted from an underground resource that is known to have a lot more potential than so far confirmed.

By 2017 this rate will double, making the Éléonore mine one of Canada’s most significant gold producers, but as the deposit is ‘open at depth and along strike’ (there is more to be discovered below and beyond the areas already drilled) the ultimate limit is not yet known.

It is a brand new, greenfield site, says Guy Belleau, site manager at the Éléonore project and it has been moved forward in an exemplary way. “In February 2011 we announced that after a successful negotiation with our Cree partners we had reached a collaboration agreement with our First Nation partners, the Cree Nation of Wemindji, the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee) and the Cree Regional Authority.”

The agreement will ensure that the Crees receive a fair share in the project’s financial benefits. It protects the environment while supporting the Crees’ social and cultural practices in a spirit of continued collaboration, and establishes shared responsibilities in critical issues of environmental stewardship, community development, local employment, and small business development. It reflects an approach to working with indigenous communities that Goldcorp hopes will provide a benchmark for its own and others to use in future projects, he says.

Construction started in November 2011, and has progressed excellently. “We are on schedule,” says Belleau. “We have dug an exploration decline, or ramp, that is now three kilometres long and down to 400 metres in depth, enabling us to initiate our diamond drilling definition so we can get better knowledge of the detail of the ore body and definition drilling also takes place from our 725 metre exploration shaft. We have also made a start on the production shaft. It is already 200 metres deep, but is projected to end up at 1,500 metres so still has a long way to go.”

A 63 kilometre road was built from the La Sarcelle Hydro-Quebec power plant which is located 60 kilometres from James Bay Highway, a 60 kilometre power line brought to the site, an airstrip constructed complete with communications tower. All in all Goldcorp has invested $130 million in infrastructure at Éléonore. “We are in a win situation here with these world class infrastructures: there is no excuse now – we are going to deliver!”

Above ground there’s a great deal of building work in progress. The steelwork for the processing plant is substantially completed, and cladding has started. From May the ball mill that crushes the ore will be installed, an important milestone towards getting the processing plant ready to receive its first batch of rock from the mine.

At the moment Éléonore is a fly-in-fly-out operation served by Air Creebec, however a 400 person permanent camp is under construction. “The accommodation is just about complete, and we are starting to build a new kitchen facility, the recreational areas and a gymnasium – all that will be completed by the end of this year.” There will also be a world class tailings management facility, an administration building and a water treatment facility with a daily capacity of 26,000 cubic metres. Contributing to this hive of activity, 850 workers are currently at the site, which means that the mine is providing direct employment to around 1,300 people.

For the rest of this advertorial, click here: http://www.bus-ex.com/article/goldcorp-%C3%A9l%C3%A9onore-mine