RED LAKE – Kinross currently has 11 drills exploring the potential Great Bear site in the municipality of Red Lake.
Ian Russell, site manager, said they have pulled roughly 6.1 million ounces of gold from the ground.
“We actually had an increase from last year to this year, of approximately 45 per cent increase on the resource estimate,” said Russell, adding that they are mostly focused on exploration right now.
Kinross is in the process of getting permits for its advanced exploration program. If they obtain their permit in time, they will begin to explore more ground in July.
He would want to see the Great Bear Project extend further to the end goal of opening up the mine. However, due to the lengthy permitting process, he predicts a 2029 start date for the main project.
Typically, the lifespan of a mine is approximately 12 years, but Russell is optimistic that once opened the ground will have enough gold to surpass the 12-year mark.
“We don't start a project knowing the overall final time frame. It is about building resources in the ground as the project evolves. If you were to look at some of the historical mines in the Red Lake area here, typically over the years, they've been operating for over 80 years," Russell said.
“Some of them only had five to six years of future growth as time went on, and 80 years later, they're still producing gold."
He pointed out that there have not been very many mining starts in Northwestern Ontario recently. Equinox’s Greenstone Gold mine will soon be fully open for resource extraction later this spring. New Gold’s Rainy River gold mine is operating successfully.
"When we look at the overall gold endowment that we see today, I've been involved with projects that haven't quite made it. And certainly, there's a lot of excitement with this project," Russell explained.
“The rationale for Kinross acquiring this project, when they did show the passion and the interest in the overall deposit because ultimately, at the end of the day, it's your mineralization that's going to dictate the capacity for you to build a mine.”
The project is located roughly 20 minutes outside of Red Lake where the area has seen a lot of mining activity historically, which Russell admitted looks good from a staffing perspective. He also said the placement of the mining site is great in terms of infrastructure.
“We're about 20 minutes south of Red Lake down the highway 105. Roughly halfway between Ear Falls and Red Lake. We're very close to a lot of infrastructure in terms of power, and natural gas.
"We don't look at this as being a remote project. We're certainly not in the high Arctic and we're certainly not at the end of a 500 kilometre gravel road. We're fortunate in that respect,” said Russell.
He also acknowledges that the Great Bear project is located on the traditional territories of the Wabauskang and Lac Seul First Nations.
"We've been involved in working with them right from the very beginning of this project," Russell said.
“We're very excited and looking forward to turning this into a flagship mine for Kinross and a world-class deposit.”
