Argonaut Gold performed the first gold pour at the Magino Mine, outside Dubreuilville, on June 14.
The Toronto gold company said in a news release that commercial mining operations will begin in the third quarter of this year, roughly late summer.
Magino, an open-pit operation located on a past producing underground mine site, is Argonaut’s first Canadian operation.
The mine is 14 kilometres southwest of Dubreuilville and 40 kilometres northeast of Wawa
Richard Young, Argonaut’s president and CEO, is proud of reaching this milestone.
“The Magino mine is key to achieving our vision to become a low-cost, mid-tier North America gold producer that creates significant value for all our stakeholders and proudly demonstrates responsible mining,” he said, in a statement.
“We thank all our employees, contractors, and community partners for their hard work and dedication that has led us to this exciting project milestone.”
COO Mark Leduc said with the first gold behind them the company can focus on commissioning and ramping up the processing mill.
“In addition, we are looking to further grow our flagship gold mine as we commence a reserve development drilling program intending to increase reserves in combination with studies to expand and optimize mill throughput, both scheduled to begin later this summer.”
This fiscal year’s gold target for Magino is to produce between 72,000 to 81,000 ounces. Next year, the first full year of production, Magino is expected to produce 148,000 ounces.
Magino's current mine life is 19 years. Argonaut is continuing exploration to find more gold and convert gold resources into reserves will continue to Magino.
A 12 to 15-month exploration and reserve development program begins this summer inside the pit, as well as to drill high-grade targets deeper down and test promising targets west of the pit.
Besides Magino, Argonaut operates mines in Nevada and in Sonora and Durango, Mexico.
