TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Toronto-based Agnico-Eagle Mines will complete a string of studies into expansion opportunities at its mines – some of which have yet to start up – that will form the base of the group's growth plans going forward, CEO Sean Boyd said on Wednesday.

Although the company would also like to have a few development projects on the burner while it expands its existing assets, there is no pressure to go out and make acquisitions, he added.

Agnico-Eagle was a one-mine company going into 2008, but is now in the midst of a marathon of start-ups, as it attempts to commission five new mines in over just two years.

“Ideally, given how we are structured, in terms of people and abilities and skills, we are built to have a couple of projects in the development pipeline while we expand the existing portfolio,” Boyd said.

“But there is no urgency, there is no pressure to do that, and we don't have to make a major acquisition to grow the company.”

The firm started production last year at the new Goldex mine, in Quebec, and began commissioning Kittila, in Finland, towards the end of the year.

Kittila has experienced some teething problems, but is expected to achieve commercial production in the second quarter of this year, president and COO Ebe Scherkus said.

Next, the company plans to start up the Lapa mine, in Quebec, in mid-2009, followed by Pinos Altos, in Mexico, during the third quarter.

A fifth new operation, Meadowbank, in Canada's Nunavut territory, is scheduled to come on line in the first quarter of 2010, which will boost output that year to 1,2-million ounces, a far cry from the 276 762 oz produced in 2008.

Beyond that, growth will largely depend on the results of studies under way this year into expansions at four of the five new operations. The company is also already expanding its flagship LaRonde mine, in Quebec.

At Goldex, a scoping study is under way into the potential to increase the production rate from 6 900 t/d to at least 8 000 t/d, and the results are expected in the second quarter of the year.

Also in the second quarter, Agnico plans to complete a feasibility study into a stand-alone operation on the Creston Mascota to the north west of the Pinos Altos gold and silver reserve.

Next up, will be a scoping study into increasing the production rate at Meadowbank from 8 500 t/d to 10 000 t/d, scheduled for completion in the third quarter, and a scoping study on potential throughput expansions at Kittila, to be published by year-end.

These studies will form a “big part” of the company's growth plans beyond 2012, Boyd said.

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