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Dome Mine to remain operational in Timmins

The Timmins mining community got some unexpected good news in July when Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM)-Goldcorp announced it would keep Dome Mine operational, contrary to an earlier decision that had the 106-year-old underground gold mine scheduled to cl
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Dome Mine in Timmins, which was scheduled to close indefinitely this fall, got a reprieve in July when its parent company, Porcupine Gold Mines, decided it was more beneficial to keep it operational.

The Timmins mining community got some unexpected good news in July when Porcupine Gold Mines (PGM)-Goldcorp announced it would keep Dome Mine operational, contrary to an earlier decision that had the 106-year-old underground gold mine scheduled to close for good by October’s end.

An upswing in gold prices, primarily, pushed PGM’s executive team to reassess the mine’s value, resulting in the change of heart.

Brendan Zuidema, PGM’s former mine manager, made the announcement on July 20, said the decision has helped elevate morale throughout the community.

“There's some optimism with where metal prices have been heading over the last year or so, but with talk about shutting things down with the Dome announcement earlier this year, you almost started to see some doom and gloom,” he said.

“But now with the prices going up and this announcement, there’s some optimism in the city for sure.”

Though “none of us have a crystal ball,” the team at PGM is confident in the continuing increase in gold prices, he said.

(Since the time of this interview, Brendan Zuidema has left his position as PGM’s mine manager. Marc Lauzier, who previously held the position, has returned to the role.)

Discovered in 1909, Dome is the last of the “big three” original gold mines — Hollinger, McIntyre and Dome — that has made Timmins one of the world’s most prolific mining camps and helped put the city on the map.
Although some work had started on the closure process, PGM had announced in early June that it was extending its original closing date of July 31 by three months to the end of October, and so there was minimal work to be done to get back on track after the decision to close was reversed, Zuidema said.

When PGM first announced it was closing Dome, it said 115 employees and 75 contractors would be impacted by the decision, and there was some shuffling around of staff, but no one had been laid off, he said.

Some former Dome employees who had experience working in open-pit mines were transferred out of Dome and into the developing Hollinger Mine. Those people will likely be transferred back to Dome and PGM will need to hire people for Hollinger.

A few more were transferred to Hoyle Pond, while others went to the mill, and a few transferred to Goldcorp’s Éléonore Mine in Quebec.

“We had backfilled everybody, basically, with contractors at the Dome Mine because there's no sense hiring people if you're only going to be open for a few months,” Zuidema said.

“So the amount of people won't change, (but) there'll be quite a bit of bumping now back into the mine, which will mean we'll have to hire for some of the other locations again.”

Gold production at Dome had been at “an all-time high” through 2015, Zuidema said, while its operating costs have been very reasonable. Evaluating the value of PGM as a whole and not by individual parts demonstrated that it was more beneficial to keep it operational.

Revenue generated through Dome helps pay for overhead associated with all of PGM’s Timmins operations — Dome, Hoyle Pond and Hollinger, Zuidema added.

Other than some routine infrastructure upgrades, PGM won’t be investing more into the Dome, and no exploration work is planned.

Zuidema figures there’s between one and three years’ worth of ore left to mine at Dome — that’s a slight downgrade from predications made at the start of 2015 that pegged the mine life at five years.

“It’s 106 years old, there’s I don’t know how many — 50,000, 100,000 — drill holes in this place; there’s nothing left to drill here,” Zuidema said. “So we know what’s left here and we’ve got a pretty good handle on it.”

The PGM boss said he’s grateful to the employees for their patience during what’s been a tumultuous time.

“The decisions weren't taken lightly over the last six months; we had pretty valid reasons why we were doing things, and I know it's been a lot of upheaval for people and a lot of indecision and uncertainty, and I'm just really thanking the crews for staying professional through this whole time,” he said.

“We've still been able to maintain production levels, cut costs, and I think the employees have done fantastic throughout this whole process.”

Zuidema said the relief throughout town is palpable, as any operational decisions about Dome impact not only the employees and their families, but also the suppliers, contractors, and others associated with the operation.