Precious metals miner Agnico Eagle is reaping the rewards of its relentless exploration endeavours, with recent drilling campaigns yielding remarkable results across key gold projects in Canada.

President and CEO Ammar Al-Joundi expressed excitement over the “pretty amazing results” obtained from exploration activities at Canadian Malartic, Detour and Hope Bay during a conference call on Friday.

“[These are] big assets in good parts of the world that really just continue to deliver. We think that these are potentially big enough to move the needle, causing us to rethink in a positive way some of our growth options going forward,” he said.

Detailing Agnico’s exploration strategy, VP for exploration Guy Gosselin highlighted the company’s focus on near-mine opportunities. This strategy aims to extend the mine life, optimise milling capacity and advance high potential projects by increasing mineral resources and reserves in both quantity and quality.

At Quebec-based Malartic site, where Agnico Eagle is constructing the Odyssey mine, the group continues to obtain “excellent” results. Recent highlights include 3 g/t over 32 m and 4.5 g/t over 33 m, at respectively 400 m and 1 000 m away from the current mineral reserve. “At a depth of between 1.1 km and 1.6 km, this could lead to the development of another mining area along the East Gouldie horizon, demonstrating that the zone remains open for additional significant discovery and future potential reserve that could help in our long-term fill-the-mill strategy,” Gosselin said.

Exploration efforts at the Detour operation, in Ontario, where Agnico plans an underground expansion, are also yielding promising results.  In the first quarter, the group completed 58 000 m of drilling, focusing on the shallow portion of a potential underground project. Notable intercepts include, for example, 5.4 g/t over 16 m, 3.9 g/t over 25 m and 3.4 g/t over 29 m in an area located close to the conceptual exploration ramp that is envisioned for Detour.  

These findings, Gosselin explained, showed potential for mineralisation that was likely amenable for underground mining, aligning with Agnico’s vision to increase Detour Lake’s production to one-million ounces a year of gold through a combined openpit and underground operation in the future.

In Nunavut’s Hope Bay, Agnico has completed 30 000 m of drilling in the March quarter, which is almost 50% more than a year earlier. The focus for the winter drilling campaign was at the Madrid deposit in a previously unexplored gap between Suluk and Patch 7 for follow-up drilling.

The most recent drilling returned “exceptional” results, reported Gosselin, with 12 g/t over 19 m, 20 g/t over 18 m, 14 g/t over 16 m.

“The core length intercept for those were just spectacular - solid from wall-to-wall - demonstrating the potential for a significant new thick mineralised area that could potentially host up to a million ounces between 10 g and 20 g. That could have a very positive impact on future project development scenarios, considering the high-grade nature compared with the rest of the deposit and the apparent simple geometry of this new zone,” he said.

FIRST-QUARTER RESULTS

Meanwhile, Agnico increased its production to 878 652 oz in the first quarter of 2024, compared with 812 813 oz in the
first quarter of 2023, owing to the additional contribution of gold production from the Canadian Malartic complex following the Yamana transaction, and increased gold production at the Meadowbank complex, partially offset by decreased gold production at the Fosterville, Detour Lake and Kittila mines.

Cash provided by operating activities increased to $783.2-million in the first quarter of 2024 compared with $649.6-million in the first quarter of 2023, while free cash flow jumped to $395.6-million.

Agnico's adjusted net income rose to $377.5-million, or $0.76 a share, in the first quarter of 2024, from an adjusted net income of $271.3-million, or $0.58 a share, a year earlier.