Northern Ont. gold mine on track to open next year, hiring to begin

Things are continuing to progress at Côté gold mine, which is located on Highway 144 between Timmins and Sudbury, and officials said the project is still set to open in 2023.

"The plant building is mostly constructed, the shells are still being completed," said Mike Garbutt, the operations manager for the Côté Gold Project.

"A lot of the foundation is done. The pit has progressed quite a bit. We had our first ore blast in October. We’ve started our tailings dam facility, the starter dam, over the winter. So a lot of good work had gone on in the project, and we’re still looking to be on track for commercial production."

The company is now in the hiring phase with more than 400 jobs needing to be filled.

"This project will be in operation for 18 years, so you can imagine a lot of suppliers, and we’re going to need a lot of mechanical components. So for sure, for all the suppliers of North Bay and even for the people who want to work outside, it’s going to be possible," said Côté mine general manager Sylvain Collard.

It will also be operating differently than most mines.

"The autonomy system related to the 793 trucks, next year you are going to be able to see some very huge trucks with 220 tones with no drivers," said Collard.

"Also, we have some equipment in the processing plant that’s going to be the biggest (high pressure grinding rolls) in Canada. So lots of good equipment to surprise the mining industry." 

The project is estimated to produce 489,000 oz. of gold over the first five years, IAMGOLD said, and create an estimated $10 billion in economic activity during the mine's operations.