Côté Gold’s presence in Timmins grows

ly basis.”

By Andrew Autio

IAMGOLD says progress on the much anticipated, and long awaited Côté Gold Project continues at a healthy pace, as they took another step forward with the official grand opening of their Timmins bus terminal and warehouse on Tuesday, July 18.

A sizeable crowd gathered at the renovated west end building for the occasion, which included many dignitaries, company personnel, community leaders, and other stakeholders.

Côté Gold Vice President and General Manager Brian Wilson told the crowd that the terminal is expected to be in operation for 18 years or so, the projected life of the mine, and added that the company is anticipating pouring gold in the first quarter of 2024.

“Its exciting times, we can see the finish line in front of us now,” he said.

“When we start pouring gold, we’re slated to be the second largest gold mine in North America.”

Another landmark development is the fact that the mine site will use fully autonomous vehicles.

“We’re the first mine in Ontario to do that, and we’re running fully autonomous drills on the mine site –we’re the first mine in Canada to do that,” said Wilson.

“We’re looking to push the boundaries of mining in Ontario.”

Regarding the bus terminal, of which there is a similar facility located in Sudbury, Wilson spoke to MiningLife about their use.

“We use them as sort of the central spots to bring people to the mine site. So employees come into the Sudbury bus terminal, or the Timmins bus terminal, go through security, get on the bus, then off to the mine,” he said, noting around 52 percent of the site’s workforce are from either the Sudbury or Timmins areas, which isn’t surprising given the geographical location being roughly midway between the cities on Highway 144.

Wilson also elaborated on some of the exciting progress that has occurred thus far in 2023.

“We started mining in the open pit in January, and really, that was taking over from The EPCM Group,” he said, as the company continues to rely less on outside contractors.

“By the end of August we should be in the whole pit.”

Wilson said the other major development in 2023 has been the process plant.

“The HPGR(high pressure grinding rolls) went in just about two months ago. So we’re building right now, aggressively, and we’re seeing lots of change at the mine site on a dai-

As exciting as the current projections are, expansion is still a possibility in the nearby Gosselin Zone. “Just like any gold mine, we continue to diamond drill in the area, trying to expand out that ore body. Back in February, we had announced another strike out there in the Gosselin Zone, and we’re having a heavy look at it and we continue to drill. Its a little ways out, but we’re watching it very closely.” Wilson was excited to discuss the autonomous vehicle operations. “Its very, very interesting watching these things drive around the mine site,” he said.

“It gives us lots of capability, and now its about learning the systems and maximizing the fleet. We’re happy with it right now, its running as its supposed to, but we’re still learning.”

CAT constructed the vehicles, and IAMGOLD was forced to be patient. “It was a long wait time, along with the electronics that support the autonomy, I think its between 8 months and a year, so the orders were put in quite some time ago,” said Wilson.

At full production, there will be 23 or so autonomous trucks moving around the site, along with 6 drills. A full control room oversees the operations and communications. He said the company is still adding manpower, as hiring for the mill is ongoing.

“We just started a night shift a few weeks ago, as we were running just a day shift which was really about the camp limitations.”

The IAMGOLD workforce currently on site is around 264, then in September and October when they start gearing up into full production, the employee number will rise to 540 or so for the majority of the mine life. Wilson said approximately 250 contractors will be on site at any given time.