Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE: AEM; TSX: AEM) provided an update on year-end 2024 mineral reserves and mineral resources, exploration activities at mine sites and select advanced projects in 2024, and the company's exploration plans and guidance for 2025. Agnico Eagle’s exploration focus remains on extending mine life at existing operations, testing near-mine opportunities and advancing key value driver projects. Agnico Eagle is a Canadian-based senior gold mining company and the third largest gold producer in the world.
Guy Gosselin, Agnico Eagle's executive vice president of exploration, said: "I would like to commend our exploration team for their performance in 2024, which set a record in terms of safety and completed our ambitious exploration program at lower costs than planned. Through our optimization of drilling productivity and innovation efforts, we successfully reduced costs by approximately 8%. The exploration program continued to yield exciting results at our key mines and pipeline projects, which drove the replacement of our mineral reserves and the increase in our inferred mineral resources by nearly 10%, primarily from additions at Detour Lake, Canadian Malartic and Hope Bay.”
Gosselin added, “Our 2025 exploration program is the continuation of this effort to define the full potential of our operating assets, aiming to extend the life of mine at existing operations and advance the assessment of the potential of our pipeline projects to support the company's vision for future growth."
The company reported the following highlights from its 2024 program: Highlights from 2024 include: Gold mineral reserves increase to record level: Year-end 2024 gold mineral reserves increased by 0.9% to 54.3 million ounces of gold (1,277 million tons grading 1.32 g/t gold). The year-over-year increase in mineral reserves is due to good mineral reserve replacement at LaRonde, Macassa, Meliadine, Amaruq, Odyssey, Kittila and Fosterville, updated mineral reserves at Upper Beaver and the initial declaration of mineral reserves at Wasamac.
At year-end 2024, measured and indicated mineral resources were 43.0 million ounces (1,167 million tonnes grading 1.14 g/t gold) and inferred mineral resources were 36.2 million ounces (451 million tonnes grading 2.49 g/t gold)
On December 31, 2024, the company's reported proven and probable mineral reserve estimates totalled at 54.3 million ounces of gold (1,277 million tonnes grading 1.32 g/t gold). This represents a 0.9% (0.47 million ounce) increase in contained ounces of gold compared to the proven and probable mineral reserve estimate of 53.8 million ounces of gold (1,287 million tonnes grading 1.30 g/t gold) at year-end 2023.
The increase in mineral reserves on December 31, 2024, is the result of the replacement of 1.5 million ounces of gold from operating assets. In particular: Fosterville, Macassa (including Amalgamated Kirkland ("AK") and Near Surface), Meliadine, Amaruq and LaRonde achieved a combined average mineral reserve replacement of 70% because of successful exploration and conversion drilling.
On December 31, 2024, Agnico Eagle’s measured and indicated mineral resource estimate totalled 43.0 million ounces of gold (1,167 million tonnes grading 1.14 g/t gold). This represents a 2.3% (1.0 million ounce) decrease in contained ounces of gold compared to the measured and indicated mineral resource estimate at year-end 2023.
The year-over-year decrease in measured and indicated mineral resources is primarily due to the upgrade of mineral resources at Upper Beaver and Wasamac to mineral reserves, largely offset by the successful conversion of inferred mineral resources into measured and indicated mineral resources at Detour Lake underground, East Malartic, Upper Beaver, Hope Bay and other sites.
The recently discovered Eclipse zone is located approximately 50 to 100 metres north of, and parallel to, the eastern portion of the East Gouldie deposit, and currently extends from approximately 1,200 metres to 1,900 metres below surface. Recent highlights from the Eclipse zone include hole MEX23-309ZB, which intersected 3.2 g/t gold over 42.9 metres at 1,241 metres depth; and hole MEX24-316, which returned 3.0 g/t gold over 51.5 metres at 1,349 metres depth in an intersection that has been re-interpreted as part of the Eclipse zone. These results demonstrate a strong potential to add mineral resources in proximity to planned mining infrastructure.
More information is found on www.AgnicoEagle.com.
February 19, 2025
February 19, 2025
February 19, 2025
Comments