GREENSTONE – Equinox Gold Corporation and Orion Mine Finance group along with local community leaders broke ground at the future site of the Greenstone Mine.
The ground-breaking ceremony on Wednesday marked the start of the full scale construction to build Greenstone Mine in Geraldton, Ont., a $1.5 billion project which would bring excitement to most people, however, it’s just another day in the life of project managers of this scale like Eric Lamontagne.
“I’m very proud, at the same time, it’s not that exciting for me, the vision was there 10 years ago, what’s happened here, for me, is just normal,” said Lamontagne.
The Greenstone Mine was developed in a 60/40 partnership by Equinox Gold and Orion and will bring 800 local and 1,300 regional jobs to the Northwest during construction and 500 jobs during operations as well as boosting the economy in the Northwest.
The mine is expected to make more than $3 billion in Ontario purchases and will pay more than $1 billion in provincial and federal taxes over its initial 14 year life.
The ceremony kicked off with and opening prayer and traditional song and featured speeches by Chiefs of the surrounding communities who were consulted during the planning of the planning process for the mine, then speeches were given by leaders of Equinox Gold and Orion.
Greenstone Mine is fully permitted to start major construction activities and has long term relationship agreements with five local First Nations: Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan Anishinabek, Aroland First Nation, Ginoogaming First Nation, Long Lake #58 First Nation, and Metis Nation of Ontario.
“We thank our Indigenous partners, the Municipality of Greenstone, and the Government of Ontario for their support of the project and look forward to working with Orion, our Indigenous partners, the Municipality of Greenstone and other stakeholders in the region to build a gold mine that can be considered an industry example for responsible mineral development,” said Equinox Gold CEO Cristian Milau.
In order for the mine to begin producing gold, infrastructure needs to be put in place, such as:
- Process plant
- Tailings management facility
- Water management facility
- Power plant
- Additional infrastructure
With construction officially started, Equinox plans to be able to begin pulling gold out of the ground as soon as September 2022, and plans to produce $900 million worth of gold annually for the projected 14 year lifespan of the mine.
The Greenstone Mine, formerly the Hardrock Project, is the first in a series of potential district scale gold mines within Greenstone Gold’s string of claim groups covering a cumulative strike length of 105 kilometres in the Geraldton-Beardmore Greenstone belt.
