The initial gold produced from Nunavut's newest mine is expected to be just several weeks away.
鈥淭he mine continues to [be] under construction. It is on track to pour first gold in June of 2025, so in the next couple months," said B2Gold's Randall Chatwin, senior vice-president of legal and corporate communications, while discussing the Goose mine.
鈥淲e have worked through the last year and completed all construction activities in 2024, including installation of the ball mill, and over 95 per cent of the concrete was placed over the summer months,鈥� Chatwin added.
Other significant construction activities include the open pit and the echo pit 鈥� the latter to be used for tailings placement when the mine becomes operational.
鈥淭hose both remain on schedule, to be completed so we have a significant stockpile when the mill starts up," said Chatwin. "The focus of activities from a construction standpoint right now are electrical and piping.鈥�
The ramp up to commercial production is expected to be achieved in the third quarter, he noted.
In 2025-26, the mine is expected to produce between 120,000-150,000 ounces of gold. From 2026-2031, the annual estimate for production is 310,000 ounces per year.
Critical to the opening and operation of the mine is the ice road, which is the main thoroughfare for bringing in staff and supplies. Construction started in December and was completed on Feb. 18, three weeks ahead of schedule.
鈥淭ransportation of the materials is happening right now. The first loads in were primarily fuel,鈥� Chatwin said during the third week of March.
Overall, construction 鈥渨ent very well," he remarked. "I think we did add quite a bit of equipment for this year鈥檚 campaign. We have 105 trucks now available, running 24 hours a day. We have upgraded the marine landing areas significantly, so there鈥檚 a new camp, which is for the drivers that aren鈥檛 currently en route to be able to rest or sleep overnight. So it鈥檚 just provided a much more seamless operation coming up and down the ice road. We expect we鈥檒l pull about 3,000 loads during this winter ice road campaign, and that would include 80 million litres of fuel, as well as other equipment for the operations base for the project.
鈥淓verything that [was] needed for complete construction was already on site,鈥� added Chatwin. 鈥淭his was really material, fuel, supplies for the next 12 months.鈥�
He said the long-term strategy for the mine and vision for B2Gold is 鈥渢o build a generational camp there. The idea is that we continue to build the district through regional exploration. Obviously, we鈥檙e going to optimize the Goose mine as it gets up and running. We鈥檙e going to continue to explore in and around the mine to always extend mine life. The deposit is open at depth in different directions.
鈥淎lso, our larger focus for this year is looking regionally at both George, which is a deposit that has a resource on it to the north, as well as six other permit areas where we are going to engage various types of exploration.
鈥淩eally, we鈥檙e looking at what kind of potential the 18-kilometre belt has 鈥� looking at the longer-term potential of the Back River gold district in addition to the Goose project. Our overall plan would be just to operate this mine, then extend its regional areas [with] highest-degree safety and sustainability practices that we鈥檝e been synonymous with globally. We integrate our environmental practices, our EDI [equity, diversity and inclusion] strategy, as well as working closely with our Kitikmeot partners to look at promoting a respectful workplace and mitigating our effects on the environment and reducing our emissions.
鈥淚f we can work collaboratively to create positive change up North,鈥� concludes Chatwin, 鈥渨hether it鈥檚 through Kitikmeot community partnerships, economic contributions 鈥� it鈥檚 just really about helping the North and leaving it in a better place once the mine is completed, which we see is more of a generational type of an operation, rather than whatever mine life currently sits within Goose.鈥�
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