Can you outline the rationale behind Agnico Eagle’s merger with Kirkland Lake Gold?

The combination of Agnico Eagle’s assets with those of Kirkland Lake gives Agnico a significant land concession for exploration and production. Our asset base across Ontario and Québec is very robust, so much so, that we are now the third largest gold producer in the world, and we are producing in some of the safest jurisdictions. A second advantage of the merger is that we benefit from the combined technical expertise of the two companies. Macassa and Detour Lake will both be able to leverage the expertise and synergies that come from Agnico’s assets in Québec.

Can you provide an overview of progress made at Macassa and Detour Lake since the merger? What synergies does this create along the Abitibi-Kirkland Corridor?

Before the merger, Kirkland Lake was in the process of building a new mine at Macassa. Now, under Agnico Eagle, we completed shaft number four which reached its planned depth of 1,950 meters in January 2023. We also significantly increased our ventilation infrastructure with two raise bores that were completed in 2022. We also are working hard to become a more reliable mine. Our maintenance strategy plays a central role in reliability, so we are focused on ensuring that we have an extremely well-functioning fleet. We invested in battery electric gear that continues to allow us to operate in certain regions of the mine that diesel equipment would not be able to operate in given ventilation limitations. Our plan is to explore and better delineate the ore body at our near surface deposit, but the merger also brought in the AK zone, which is an ore body that is very close to our existing infrastructure for the near surface. We are currently in the process of evaluating when that ore body will be coming into production. If the deposit existed solely under Agnico’s purview it would probably not be viable, but because of synergies associated with the merger, the deposit can now be part of an effort to bring on additional ounces earlier than expected.

At Detour Lake, 2021 was a record year in production. We produced over 700,000oz in 2021, and beat that record in 2022 with nearly 800,000oz. The reason for our success can largely be attributed to the fact that we completed several different projects in relation to the plant, which optimized our process. On top of that, we continue to explore at Detour, and in 2022 we released a new mine plan that significantly unlocked value. We increased reserves by approximately 5.6 million oz, which extends mine life an additional 10 years out to 2052. This allows Detour to become a very long-term play, because we will have 30 years of operation that will allow us to explore the potential for the asset. This includes open pit resource, reserves and underground. In 2023, we continue to focus on understanding the potential for underground at Detour.

How will you go about achieving 30% emissions reductions from Agnico’s Ontario-based mines by 2030?

Macassa is a pioneer in battery electric deployment in an operational setting. When Kirkland Lake implemented the technology years ago, we went through the entire process of operating with prototype gear and making that gear operational ready. Consequently, at Macassa, emissions are very low relative to other mines. The biggest emissions reductions therefore will occur at Detour, because we have a large diesel truck fleet. Over the past four years we have been working on a trolley assist project that could potentially reduce emissions up to 27%.

Can you outline Agnico Eagle’s strategy to make meaningful investments in junior companies?

We have a very strong corporate development team that is always looking in Ontario, and globally for opportunities to add value and collaborate in the junior space when it makes sense. We have largely focused in safe jurisdictions, and I think that is one of the differentiating factors we have as a company in relation to our competitors.