Canadian miner Agnico Eagle expects its 2030 gold production to be near the upper-end of its guidance range, following a Finland court decision to restore the Kittila mine’s operating permit to two-million tonnes a year.
With the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) ruling, the company expects about 30 000 oz of additional production from the Kittila mine in the fourth quarter, president and CEO Ammar Al-Joundi said on Friday.
Agnico’s 2023 guidance range is between 3.24-million ounces and 3.44-million ounces.
The ruling ends the legal action surrounding the environmental and water permits, which Agnico was awarded in 2020. At the time, the Regional State Administrative Agency of Northern Finland granted Agnico Eagle Finland permits that would allow the company to enlarge the CIL2 tailings storage facility, expand the operations of the Kittila mine to two-million tonnes a year and build a new discharge waterline.
The permits were subsequently appealed and in July last year, the Vaasa Administrative Court returned the permits to the agency for reconsideration.
Agnico appealed the decisions of the Vaasa Administrative Court to the SAC and requested that the SAC restore the permits.
The company operated Kittila at a yearly rate of two-million tonnes a year in the first nine months of 2023 and is now expected to maintain that production rate through the fourth quarter of 2023.
The Kittila mine is the biggest primary gold producer in Europe. Kittila achieved commercial production in 2009, becoming Agnico’s first mine outside Canada. Since openpit mining was completed in 2012, Kittila has been an underground-only operation.
Kittila produced 216 947 oz gold in 2022 and is forecast to produce 200 000 oz/y this year.