Gold mining mogul Rob McEwen is glad to see 2020 in the rearview mirror.
“2020 was a brutal year but we more than survived and have come out stronger from it," said the executive chairman and chief owner of McEwen Mining.
His Toronto-based company released its fourth quarter and end-of-year results for 2020 on March 11.
Total gold production from its mines in Ontario, Nevada, and Mexico in 2020 amounted to 114,800 gold equivalent ounces, compared to 174,400 ounces in 2019.
Production from its Black Fox Mine, east of Timmins, in 2020 stood at 24,400 ounces. Total cash costs and all-in-sustaining-costs were $1,397 and $1,650 per gold equivalent ounces, respectively
The company recorded a consolidated net loss of $152.3 million. Operational issues and the pandemic outbreak factoring into the company's financial performance over the last two years have "deeply pained" McEwen.
And while he wasn't hopeful of a stellar year in 2021, McEwen was projecting ahead to next year with an upcoming mine expansion and potential new gold discoveries in northeastern Ontario.
"The future of our Fox Complex is becoming more visible," said McEwen in a March 11 news release.
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Situated 11 kilometres east of Matheson, alongside Highway 101, this series of gold projects is stretched over almost 7,000 hectares, including its currently operating Black Fox Mine.
The company is looking to expand Black Fox into the nearby Froome deposit and bring it into production by year's end. The underground access ramp to reach Froome is nearly complete, McEwen reports.
A vent drive that will provide initial access to Froome was 95 per cent done by the end of February. The company said it's on track to reach the main deposit by the end of March and start development work toward starting commercial production by the fourth quarter of this year.
The Black Fox mine has operated as an open pit and underground mine since production began in 1997. At the end of 2020, the mine had produced a total of 944,000 ounces of gold.
This expansion will extend the longevity of the Black Fox Mine by two-and-half years and provide a bridge to a second phase of expansion at the Fox Complex.
The company has said in the past that the nearby Grey Fox deposit is expected to be the next gold project in the queue to be developed. More details on that will be revealed in a few months.
Last April, an indicated gold resource estimate for Grey Fox amounted to 880,000 ounces at an average grade of 7.1 grams per tonne.
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By the middle of this year, a preliminary economic assessment of the entire Fox Complex is expected to be done. McEwen wants to boost the gold production from 30,000 to 40,000 ounces a year to more than 100,000 ounces.
"Given our large gold resource base in the Timmins area, we expect it to support a potential ten-year mine life with annual production of 100,000 to 150,000 ounces of gold," said McEwen in a statement.
McEwen's other properties in northeastern Ontario are the Stock property, with a group of gold prospects and an existing processing mill, located between Matheson and Timmins; and the Lexam property, a cluster of four past-producing properties just a few kilometres from downtown Timmins.
At Black Fox, $6.5 million was spent on exploration last year with the goal being to extend mine life by finding nearby gold resources.
Exploration drilling continues at all of its Timmins gold assets, including below the workings of the former Stock Mine, which operated intermittently between the early 1980s and 2004.
McEwen deployed drill rigs last year to fill in the gaps of some encouraging gold intersects being pulled from a new zone of mineralization. If there's sufficient gold, the company intends to de-water the mine in the second half of this year and re-open the mine.
