Sabina Gold & Silver Corp (Sabina) has said that all pre-development activities for the Goose Mine development at the company’s 100% owned Black River Gold District in Nunavut, Canada, are now complete and the site is ready for full construction to commence in 2023.

Gold engineering & procurement 

Sabina said that it has been steadily advancing logistics, civil works, engineering and procurement for the site over the past few years. All major equipment and materials required for construction have been either procured and marshalled to the company’s east and west transportation hubs or have been delivered or are in transit to the Port Facility in Bathurst Inlet, Nunavut. 

In addition, the underground ramp for the mine has been progressed to the first ore access sublevel and will be sufficiently completed to enable underground drilling of the V2 zone in the 4th quarter of this year, the statement said. 

With financing in hand and these significant activities completed, the Board of Directors of the Company has made a formal construction decision for the Goose Mine, it continued.

The Goose Mine is the Company’s first mine on the 80 km long Back River Gold District, a multi-generational mining district already with a high-grade world class gold endowment.

“This is a milestone decision for the Company,” said Bruce McLeod, President & CEO. “We are excited to formally commit to becoming a significant Canadian gold producer. In the meantime, we have been steadily advancing the project to be in a position to commence full construction in early 2023 with first production expected in Q1, 2025. Our recruitment efforts continue to be successful with considerable additions to the roster (from 30 personnel in March to 142 to-date and still adding), including many key positions.”

“Additionally, we are fortunate that our strategy of pre-planning and accelerating procurement efforts has reduced our exposure to inflationary impacts and supply chain issues, and we are sufficiently funded for construction. This is an exciting time for the company as we move to develop what we believe will be the first mine in this prolific gold district,” he said.

Procurement, engineering and civil work completed

After the company arranged over C$800m of project financing package earlier this year, significant procurement, engineering and civil work was completed at both the Goose site and the Port facility, McLeod said.

Of the US$465.36m CAPEX estimated, approximately US$166.3m was identified as direct equipment and materials purchases. Sabina has procured, or has committed agreements to procure, just over 75% of these identified purchases. Reconciliation on purchases have seen an average overall inflationary escalation of 14% since March of 2021, with a 20% escalation on the purchases made in 2022. 

The company said that it will continue to monitor, with a strategy of pre-planning and accelerating procurement efforts to reduce exposure to inflationary impacts. Efforts are now focused on securing the remaining 25% of materials required, it concluded.