McEwen advances new gold mine near Timmins, Ont.
McEwen Mining Inc. [MUX-TSX, NYSE] said it is making progress at its Fox complex in the Timmins, Ont., mining camp where the company is advancing a new mine on the Stock property.
McEwen Mining is a gold and silver producer with operations in Nevada, Canada, Mexico and Argentina. In addition, it owns about 47.7% of McEwen Copper, which owns the large, advanced stage Los Azules copper project in Argentina.
The Fox complex covers 7,000 hectares along the Destor-Porcupine Fault and includes an active mining operation with gold production from the Froome mine, which commenced commercial production in September, 2021, using the pre-existing Fox mill facility. Fox is expected to produce 40,000 to 42,000 gold equivalent ounces (GEOs) this year.
In the latest update, McEwen said production at Stock is planned to start in the second half of 2025. The company said pre-production activities at the Stock portal have commenced. The aim is to allow access to mining of the three gold zones, West, Main and East. In addition, the portal will provide cost-effective underground drill platforms to enable testing for expected depth extensions of the three zones.
On Friday, McEwen shares eased 2.3% or 30 cents to $12.88. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $17.08 and $8.05.
The Fox Complex consists of several properties, including Stock, and has a measured and indicated gold resource of 1.9 million ounces at an average grade of 4.20 g/t gold and inferred gold resources of 549,000 ounces at an average grade of 3.60 g/t gold.
The Stock project total is 281,000 ounces of indicated material and 181,000 ounces of inferred. That includes Stock West and Main as well as the Stock East Zone.
The Stock property hosts the Stock Mill and the former Stock Mine, which produced 137,000 ounces of gold from an underground operation between 1989 and 2005.
The company said pre-construction activities have commenced at the portal with the removal of overburden. Underground development is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2024. The Stock Ramp will connect the West Zone and the East Zone to the existing historical underground workings of the Main Zone.
“Stock is expected to provide increased gold production at a lower cost per ounce than our current production from the Froome mine,’’ McEwen said.
The advantages of mining at Stock compared to Froome are significant and the reasons are three-fold:
- There is a significantly lower transportation or haulage cost. The Froome mine is deeper and located 35 kilometres from the Stock mill. The gold at Stock is at shallower depths and right next to the mill.
- Increased gold production due to expected higher mill throughput as a result of the Stock material having a lower (softer) work index compared to what is currently being processed from the Froome mine.
- The bulk of Stock is free of royalties, whereas Froome is not.