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Gold is up approximately 28% year to date, with gains underpinned by central bank buying, the Fed’s pivot and geopolitical tensions.
Vancouver-based Rubicon Minerals (TSE:RMX) has passed a key hurdle in its plan to develop the Phoenix gold project in Red Lake, Ontario.
The company announced Dec. 2nd that the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines has approved its closure plan, meaning further construction of the mine can proceed.
President and CEO David Adamson called the approval a “significant milestone” considering the initial discovery was made only three and a half years ago.
Three more permits are still remaining, and those are expected to be granted by the end of 2012 says Rubicon. The mine would begin producing in 2013.
Agnico-Eagle, a gold producer with three mines in Quebec, as well as the Canadian territory of Nunavut, Finland and Mexico, paid $70 million in July for a 9.2% stake in Rubicon Minerals.
The capital injection was intended to be used by Rubicon for exploration drilling and other development work at Phoenix, which is estimated to contain 477,000 indicated ounces of gold graded at 14.5 g/t, and 2.3 million ounces inferred at 17 g/t.
The deposit is in close proximity to Goldcorp’s Red Lake mine, Canada’s largest gold mine and one of the world’s richest gold mines and lowest cost producers.
