Gold production is expected to double this year at the new Côté Gold Mine, outside Gogama.
With an abbreviated, but strong, startup year under its belt, IAMGOLD said it sees “positive momentum” heading into 2025 at its open-pit mine located halfway between Sudbury and Timmins.
Côté has only been operating for nine months — first gold was poured on March 31, 2024 — but in that span the open-pit operation produced 199,000 ounces for the year, including a healthy 96,000 ounces in the fourth quarter.
To that end, this year’s gold production target for Côté (known in industry vernacular as guidance) is being set between 360,000 and 400,000 ounces.
In a news release last week, company president-CEO Renaud Adams heaped praise on the Côté team that “achieved among the quickest ramp-ups to commercial production for a large-scale open-pit gold mine in Canada.”
IAMGOLD will be reporting its 2024 financial results on Feb. 20, but served up some details last week on the successful year that was at Côté and its other mines in Burkina Faso and western Quebec.
The company finished the year with gold production of 667,000 ounces, up 43 per cent from 2023, thanks to having Côté in operation.
IAMGOLD said it expects to post record revenues for 2024 based on gold sales of 654,000 ounces and an average gold price of US$2,326.
Don’t expect exploration activity at Côté to be slackening off with $13 million dropped into the budget to build up gold reserves and drill off an untapped area between the mine and the Gosselin zone, the latter being an up and coming deposit.
