Building continues in central Newfoundland forest as Marathon aims for first gold by 2025

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Buildings have been built and new ones are going up.

A section of earth that was once forest in central Newfoundland is now a busy construction zone with more than 400 people laying concrete foundations, forming walls and roofing them in.

Near Millertown, Marathon Gold is making steady progress on a mine and mill project at its Valentine site.

In a news release, the company said two full quarters of construction have now been completed.

In June, the project saw more than half a million hours of site work completed without a lost time incident, said Marathon Gold CEO Matt Manson.

“Construction at the Valentine Gold Project has moved into summer with strong progress being made in each of our principal work fronts of mining, process plant, and Tailings Management Facility,” he said.

The project remains on track for gold production to start in the first quarter of 2025, Manson said.

The company said last year the mine could become the largest gold mine in Atlantic Canada, with the potential to produce 198,000 ounces of gold annually for the first 12 years of operation.

At June 30, the company said a work camp to accommodate 352 employees is completed and concrete has been poured for the processing plant.

A time-lapse video produced by Marathon Gold shows that progress.

That building will cost a little more than originally expected, because of modifications to the design.

Manson explained a new engineering plan provides for a better plant layout and a larger carbon-in-leach recovery circuit. That will allow the company to increase gold output for the first three years of the project.

While the new design adds about $33 million, an eight percent increase, to the cost of the mill, the pay-off will be in faster processing and increased gold production.

As of June 30, the company estimates it will cost $391 million to complete construction at the site.

About $113 million has already been spent, and $271 million has been committed.

A Marathon video illustrates how the site will transform from forest to a working mine and mill.

Last summer Marathon signed a benefits agreement with the province, assuring that more than three-quarters of workers would be from the province.

According to the company, at the end of June 454 people were working on the project, with about half of them employed directly by Marathon and the rest employed by contractors and subcontractors.

About 28 per cent of the workers are from communities adjacent to the mine: from Millertown and Buchan’s Junction, to Grand Falls-Windsor and Bishop’s Falls.

Marathon Gold was trading at 80 cents a share on Aug. 3 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Over the past year the company's share values have fluctuated from a high of $2.05 (CDN) to a low of 70 cents.