Kirkland Lake Gold President and CEO Tony Makuch spoke at a Timmins Chamber Business event on Wednesday, to give an update on gold mines around the north. During his presentation he assured everyone that the production of gold has gone up quite the amount in the last year.

“From 2018 to 2019 we have seen production go up by almost 30 percent. We are getting more gold at a lower cost.”

When you find more gold without spending as much money as you usually would, that can be a good thing.

“With the production going up and the cost coming down, that part of how were able to take resources and convert them to reserves. So it extends the mine life, and the other part it does is, it gives us money to invest in exploration, and it gives us the chance to sustain development and growth aspects.

The goal for Kirkland Lake Gold was to have at least 8 years of mining life, but now with a good percentage of gold production the projection of the mines life is now on track to reach maybe 30 or even 40 years.

Makuch also showed some confidence when he said “There is still a lot of gold to be found here in Timmins and around the area.” If that’s the case, then would that mean that they could eventually dig deeper, or could we see some new mines in the surrounding area in the near future?

“It’s both, it can go deeper in terms of current deposits, and finding new deposits in current locations. There’s still potential to find new deposits around this area, and there are still areas that have yet to be explored and that can be explored.”

Gold production around the Timmins area has been going strong for just over a 100 years. Production specifically for Kirkland Lake Gold has gone up in recent years… It started off as a few mines that weren’t even expected to last a decade, but now it seems, by the way things are going at Kirkland Lake Gold Operations, there’s a promising future ahead of them.

 

–Alain Quevillon, KiSS 993.3 / 92.1 ROCK News Intern

Filed under: Local News