The Company owns the producing Macassa mine and mill in the Kirkland Lake mining camp as well as the Holt mining complex near Matheson, Ontario (approximately 60 km northeast of Kirkland Lake). The Holt mill, which is currently on care and maintenance, has a capacity of 3,000 tpd and a fully permitted tailings storage facility. The Company plans to evaluate the potential to integrate a number of satellite deposits with the existing infrastructure in the region. The significant 100%-owned opportunities in the Kirkland Lake camp include:
• AK deposit
• Upper Beaver deposit
• Other regional deposits – Upper Canada, Anoki-McBean and Bidgood
• Opportunities along the Main Break where the Company now controls six past producing mines
The AK deposit is located very close to the Macassa property boundary and lies within a few hundred metres of the existing Macassa underground workings. At year-end 2022, the AK deposit was estimated to contain 100,000 ounces of gold in probable mineral reserves (596,000 tonnes grading 5.20 g/t gold), 45,000 ounces of gold in indicated mineral resources (230,000 tonnes grading 6.06 g/t gold) and 125,000 ounces of gold in inferred mineral resources (700,000 tonnes grading 5.57 g/t gold). Because of the proximity to the property boundary, the deformation zone hosting the AK deposit, which extends laterally and at depth, it has not been drill tested extensively. This zone, along with the eastern trend of the Amalgamated Break, remain interesting targets for new discoveries.
The Upper Beaver deposit is located approximately 27 km from the Macassa mine and 60 km from the Holt mining complex. As at December 31, 2022, Upper Beaver had approximately 1.4 million ounces of gold and 20,000 tonnes of copper in underground probable mineral reserves (8.0 million tonnes grading 5.43 g/t gold and 0.25% copper); 403,000 ounces of gold and 5,100 tonnes of copper in underground indicated mineral resources (3.6 million tonnes grading 3.45 g/t and 0.14% copper); and 1.4 million ounces of gold and 17,300 tonnes of copper in underground inferred mineral resources (8.7 million tonnes grading 5.07 g/t and 0.20% copper).
The Upper Canada deposit lies approximately 6 km southwest of the Upper Beaver property, and 1.6 km north of the main Larder Lake-Cadillac Deformation Zone, within a 300- to 400-metre-wide strongly altered deformation corridor. Upper Canada hosts indicated mineral resources of 10.4 million tonnes grading 2.15 g/t gold (containing 722,000 ounces of gold) and inferred mineral resources of 18.6 million tonnes grading 3.11 g/t gold (containing 1.9 million ounces of gold) at underground and open pit depths as at December 31, 2022.
The combined indicated mineral resources at the Anoki and McBean deposits are estimated at 3.9 million tonnes grading 2.77 g/t gold (containing 349,000 ounces of gold) as at December 31, 2022, and there are additional inferred mineral resources, all at underground depths.
Geology
The properties lie within the southern Abitibi Greenstone Belt of the Superior Province of the Canadian Shield, approximately 110 km west of Agnico Eagle's LaRonde mine. The area is underlain by an east-west-trending linear Timiskaming assemblage comprised of volcanic and sedimentary rocks as well as synvolcanic intrusion emplacements consisting typically of diorite, syenite, quartz-feldspar porphyries and monzonite. The assemblage, deposited in a sub-aerial to shallow marine arc-rift environment, is typically bound to the south by the Larder-Cadillac Break (LCB) – which is a major east-trending, south-dipping regional structure that juxtaposed Tisdale mafic to ultramafic rocks (south of the fault) against much younger Timiskaming sedimentary rocks. The LCB lies within the Larder Cadillac Deformation Zone, which is a wide structural zone cutting across several lithologies.
Mineralization
The three main undeveloped deposits on the properties display distinct mineralization:
• The AK deposit consists of lode-style gold mineralization hosted by altered and pyritic Timiskaming volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The deposit is hosted in one of many northeast-trending structures that lie between the Kirkland Lake Main Break and the Larder Lake-Cadillac Deformation Zone. The gold mineralization is of two types: gold-bearing quartz and quartz breccia veins, and gold within pyrite-altered host rocks.
• Upper Beaver is a gold-copper deposit that is mainly hosted in the Upper Beaver alkalic intrusive complex and the surrounding basalts it intruded, and is associated with disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite, and magnetite-sulphide veining associated with strong magmatic-hydrothermal alteration. The mineralization occurs as elongated tabular bodies that strike northeast, dip steeply northwest and plunge 65 degrees to the northeast. The mineralization has been defined along a 400-metre strike length from surface to a depth of 1,800 metres and it remains open at depth.
• The Upper Canada deposit is hosted primarily in volcanic (trachyte) tuffs and sediments that have been intruded by syenite bodies. Gold mineralization is associated with intensely altered shear zones with fine pyrite and ancillary sulphide mineralization. En-echelon higher-grade lenses are present within a broader envelope of lower grade mineralization.
Exploration
AK Deposit
In 2022 at the AK deposit, 643 metres of ramp development were completed of a planned 1.3-km exploration ramp from the existing Macassa Near-Surface Zones (“NSUR”) to provide access to carry out infill drilling and collect a bulk sample from the higher grade portions of the deposit. Resource conversion drilling was conducted from surface into the AK deposit, with 48 drill holes totaling 12,692 metres completed during the first half of 2022. In addition, underground drilling was carried out from the ramp with 120 holes drill holes totaling 16,438 metres completed in 2022.
The Company is evaluating the potential to produce between 20,000 to 40,000 ounces of gold per year from the AK deposit commencing in 2024. These ore zones are currently accessible via a shallow ramp system and the Company believes that they could initially provide up to 350 tpd of ore starting in 2024 and gradually ramp up to 500 tpd.
In 2023, drilling is planned to continue at AK from the underground platforms that were developed in 2022, with a focus on continuing to upgrade and increase the indicated mineral resources.
The Company is also evaluating the potential to transport ore from the AK deposit at Macassa to the LaRonde Complex (a distance of approximately 130 km) to utilize the excess mill capacity at the LaRonde Complex mill.
Upper Beaver
In 2022, thirty-three drill holes totaling 15,599 metres were completed on the Upper Beaver property with two objectives: to infill mineral resource gaps in the Footwall Zone mineralized corridor, between 800 and 1,000 metres below surface; and to finalize the conversion of inferred mineral resources on both the Porphyry and Footwall zones down to 1,600 metres below surface. Drilling in both areas proved successful and is expected to have a positive impact on the technical evaluation and updated mineral reserve and mineral resource estimate expected in late 2023.
The Company believes that Upper Beaver has the potential to be a low-cost mine with annual production in the range of 150,000 ounces to 200,000 ounces of gold with moderate capital outlays. New processing scenarios are being evaluated for the Upper Beaver deposit, including shipping the ore to the Canadian Malartic mill for processing. A new technical evaluation of the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. Construction of the required underground infrastructure (including a shaft) is expected to take approximately five years to complete following a development decision.
Regional deposits
Work is ongoing to evaluate the potential to develop other regional deposits (Upper Canada and Anoki-McBean) as potential ore feed to existing milling infrastructure in the region.
For regional exploration in Ontario in 2023, the Company expects to spend a total of $9.4 million to undertake a compilation of all historical information in the Kirkland Lake camp. The compilation will assist in developing new exploration targets around the Macassa mine and the Company anticipates performing 8,000 metres of exploration drilling at some of these targets near the mine site.