Tectonic Metals gets funding for gold exploration in Alaska
The company's Flat gold project is located 40 km north of the giant Donlin gold project.
What is the economic impact of a new gold mine? This infographic takes a deeper look at the impact of a hypothetical new gold mine in Ontario.
From the perspective of economists, the impact of a new mine is truly an interesting opportunity. It is the rare situation where we are able to take something from nature, and turn it into new wealth for a variety of stakeholders including the community and regional economies.
The University of Toronto, in association with the Ontario Mining Association, recently completed a study on the economic impact of a new gold mine in Northern Ontario. The full study can be found here.
Specifically, the study looks at the conservative economic impact of building and operating an underground mine with $600 million CAPEX and an open pit mine with $750 million CAPEX.
Perhaps a good comparable project would be Gold Canyon’s Springpole Project, located near Red Lake, Ontario. The project’s Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) from 2013 has the CAPEX at $544 million for an open pit mine with 4.4 Moz of Au at a grade of 1.07 g/t.
There are risks with each new mine and it is clear that the practice of mining must be treated with respect for nature, aboriginal communities, and people in the region. However, Ontario is a jurisdiction that has a great track record in this respect.
2 Comments
Silver summit sam
Jeff: what are the assumptions that would motivate the undertaking of this hypothetical project. It seems they have been overlooked. The benefit to the people, communities, and govement are just great but the project first needs a reason to be placed into play.there are not a lot of profitable mining companies around these days. Is it because profitabilities importance has been overlooked too?
Anopheles
Great in theory, however the EA process is completely broken. It will take 3-5 years for an EA to be approved, providing there is full government support. If, like many EAs being done today, the government drags it’s feet, then closer to 5-10 years.
I had an EA for a commercial/residential development area that wasn’t contentious, but still sat on the ministers desk for almost a year, just waiting for a signature.