Charest's Plan Nord mission visits Goldcorp Inc.’s Charest's Plan Nord mission visits Goldcorp Inc.’s Éléonore gold mine
By Kevin Dougherty, GAZETTE QUEBEC BUREAU
January 10, 2012
OPINACA – The prospecting mission led by Premier Jean Charest and Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume to promote Charest’s Plan Nord struck gold Tuesday in the wilderness of northern Quebec, visiting the site of the Goldcorp Inc.’s Éléonore gold mine.
Labeaume, who led a delegation of about 25 Quebec City-area businesspeople and who made his personal fortune in the mining business, said Éléonore is “opening up a new mining region in Canada.”“It is major, major, major,” he said.
Guy Belleau, director of the $2.2-billion mining project, set to begin production of 600,000 ounces of gold yearly in 2017, went further.
“The Plan Nord is Éléonore,” he said in a presentation to the business delegation, political leaders and representatives of the Cree First Nations who count on landing about half the 700 construction jobs and 400 mining jobs Éléonore will generate.
At $1,638 an ounce for gold, and with its production costs under $400 an ounce, Éléonore will be a profitable venture for the next 20 years, Belleau said, and possibly longer, as the full extent of the mineral deposit is defined.
He noted that kitchen staff at Éléonore start at $55,000 a year, while the most skilled miners are paid $160,000 a year.
Éléonore is a “fly-in, fly-out” operation, where workers can work rotations of 14 days, 12 hours a day, then return to the south for 14 days off.
“We think one day this discovery could lead to a mining camp as prolific as Rouyn-Noranda or Val d’Or were,” Belleau told reporters later, referring to two towns in Quebec’s Abitibi region that grew out of mining projects.
“We will know that in about 40 years,” he added, noting there are several other mining exploration projects near Éléonore.
“We believe this mining camp will lead to several, several more mines in the coming years,” Belleau said.
Charest called Éléonore “a magnificent project to open this great territory of all Quebecers,” and said it would “generate a great deal of wealth for Quebec,” but he also sounded a note of caution.
“Is is possible one day?” he said. “Yes it is.”
His government does want permanent settlements in Quebec’s north, where temperatures Tuesday were minus 36C. But it is taking a “lucid” approach.
“In the short term, we do not anticipate the development of a town here,” the Premier said.
“Now we know we are in a new world of possibilities and with the Plan Nord there is a phenomenon of opening the territory which we did not have before.
“That is the way Val d’Or was created and Rouyn-Noranda was created.
“So it is possible, but in the short term we don’t want to create expectations.”
Charest said many people have images of mining that are disconnected from reality.
“This is an industry that has become very technological,” he said.
Technology is also the key to efficient processing in the forestry industry, maximizing the use of wood and developing new wood products, as Charest saw at the Chantiers Chibougamau high-tech sawmill on Monday.
And Hydro-Québec is constantly renewing its technology to maximize the output of its gigantic James Bay hydroelectrical project, generating 37 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, meeting about half Quebecers’ daily demand.
kdougherty@montrealgazette.com
© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Charest+Plan+Nord+mission+visits+Goldcorp+%C
3%89l%C3%A9onore+gold+mine/5975822/story.html