Hunt for gold Hunt for gold aided record breaking year for mining investment in Newfoundland and Labrador
Companies spent over $66 million on exploration and development.
Marathon Gold’s Valentine Lake project is anticipated to produce over a decade of employment for the region.
It takes money to make money.
To find the proof of that well-worn adage you only need to look to page 27 of the province’s Economic Review for 2021.
There’s been a flood of mining exploration activity in the province over the past couple of years — driven mainly by the hunt for gold in central Newfoundland —resulting in $66.8 million worth of exploration activity in 2020, the highest in seven years.
For 2021, the province is projecting the mining industry will invest about $82 million in exploration and development.
In central Newfoundland some of that investment is trickling down to the local economy as one company, Marathon Gold, moves from exploration to development of its Valentine Gold project.
In February the company announced it would spend $10.5 million on drilling this year, continuing the drilling program that saw over 200 holes bored in 2020 in the Millertown area.
That should mean work for other companies, said Manuel.
“My understanding is there will be 300 contractors on site, just for the development stage. So you can imagine … the amount of people and spinoffs from that," he said.
The mining operation itself should mean long-term benefits for the area.
“With over four million ounces of confirmed gold and lots of prospecting left to do … you’re looking at a 15-20 year mine life if everything gets going as it should," he said.
While the town won’t collect any commercial taxes from the company, since the mine site is well away from town boundaries, Manuel said the direct benefits to town revenues will, hopefully, come from the people and businesses that might move to the town to work at, or provide services, to the company.
If the explorations being done by other companies, like New Found Gold, lead to more gold, the economic boost could be huge.
All of this exploration has already meant extra work for the province’s Department of Industry, Energy and Technology.
Assistant deputy minister Alex Smith said they’ve had hire extra staff to process prospecting claims and other paperwork in the past year.
He noted about one/third of the land mass on the island part of the province is under active licence and in 2020 there were 96,000 claims staked.