TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian-gold-miner Agnico-Eagle Mines expects gold production to jump 100%, to 590 000 oz next year, followed by another doubling, to 1,2-million ounces, in 2010.

In July, Agnico-Eagle said it expected to produce between 300 000 oz and 320 000 oz of gold in 2008.

The Toronto-based miner opened two new mines this year, and will repeat the feat in 2009, with a fifth operation scheduled to start production early the following year.

The company, which raised $290-million earlier this month in a private placement of shares and warrants, said on Thursday that project capital expenditures are now expected to total some $432-million in 2009, and $146-million in 2010, as the new mines are completed.

However, despite slumping prices for the zinc produced as a by-product at the company's LaRonde mine, the firm said its growth plans remain "well funded", with a cash balance of some $440-million, plus available credit of $250-million.

Agnico-Eagle achieved production at its new Goldex mine, in Quebec, during the third quarter of this year, is currently commissioning the Kittila mine, in Finland, and will start up the Lapa mine, in mid-2009, followed by the Pinos Altos mine in the second half of the year.

Meadowbank, in Canada's Nunavut territory, is still scheduled for the first quarter of 2010.

"Agnico-Eagle enters 2009 with a strengthened balance sheet and the expectation that over the next 15 months we will complete the construction of three more gold mines," said vice-chairperson and CEO Sean Boyd.

The company said on Thursday evening that it now expects total weighted average cash costs of $325/oz in 2009, declining to $284/oz in 2010.

Between 2010 and 2018, Agnico-Eagle is forecasting average steady state gold production of more than 1,2-million ounces, at total cash operating costs of around $320/oz.

The Goldex mine, which experienced some teething problems in the initial months of production, is ramping up well and is now operating at close to design rates, the company reported.

During November, the mill averaged throughput of around 6 250 t/d, compared with the design rate of 6 900 t/d, and the milled grade was approximately 2,1 g/t, in line with the grades predicted in the reserve model.

At Kittila, oxidised sulphides from the autoclave have now been introduced into the leaching circuit, and the first gold pour is expected "imminently", Agnico-Eagle said.

The mine is expected to achieve commercial production in the first quarter of 2009.

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