New gold mine in northern Ontario could become biggest in Canada

IAMGOLD’s Cote Gold open pit mine, located off Highway 144 between Timmins and Sudbury, had its official ribbon-cutting ceremony this week as production ramps up.

IAMGOLD’s Cote Gold open pit mine, located off Highway 144 between Timmins and Sudbury, had its official ribbon-cutting ceremony this week as production ramps up.

Cote primarily produces gold, with silver as a by-product.

“Our production is growing, we're still not at nameplate capacity yet,” said Bryan Wilson, general manager of Cote Gold.

“We're still going through teething problems in the process plant, but it's getting to where we need to be.”

The mine poured its first gold bar at the end of March, but Wilson wouldn’t reveal hard figures during the ribbon-cutting ceremony the company hosted Wednesday, but he said the pit will need to produce around 170,000 tonnes a day of low-grade ore.

Cote Gold is situated in the territory belonging to Mattagami and Flying Post First Nations and community leaders said they have a really good working relationship with IAMGOLD.

“We're going to be connecting with each other on a regular basis to see what's happening, to update about all of the things that we need to communicate about,” said Jennifer Constant, Chief of Mattagami First Nation.