Gold price surge motivates northwestern Ontario mines to explore and expand

Rising gold prices are welcome news for mining operations in northwestern Ontario as they work to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The price of gold hit a record high earlier this month, briefly topping $2,000 US an ounce.

And the price is helping mines that halted production due to COVID-19 get back up and running.

"We have five producing gold mines in northwestern Ontario," said John Mason, project manager of mining services with the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission.

"We typically produce, annually out of the northwest, about 700, 000 ounces to a million ounces a year," he said. "We're a major contributor in Canada."

Mason said about 6 million ounces of gold a year are mined across Canada.

The five mines in northwestern Ontario are all back up and running again after temporary pandemic-related shutdowns; some, Mason said, are even expanding.

New Gold at Emo, an open-pit mine, for example, is now adding an underground mine, as well.

And while that expansion has been in the works for some time, Mason said the price of gold likely motivated the company to start the work a year earlier than initially planned.

"A lot of that, I would suggest, is spurred by the price of gold," he said. "It'll take a year of development, probably before they can produce, so they've got to get at it now."

Mason said how long gold prices will remain high is unknown, and gold companies are paid by selling the product they produce on the open market, or to refineries, and want to take advantage of the price.

In addition, a few companies are exploring opportunities to set up new mines in the region.

The furthest-along is a Red Lake mine being set up by Vancouver's Pure Gold Mining, which is expected to be up and running in December, Mason said.