Emerging gold producer TMAC Resources has received a project certificate from the Nunavut Impact Review Board for the Madrid and Boston project, marking the end of the environmental assessment process.
The company also advised on Monday that it expected to receive the type A water licences for Madrid and Boston in the first quarter of 2019, rather than the previously anticipated second quarter.
The Nunavut Water Board was expected to send draft licences to the Ministers of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada by mid-December and that Ministerial approval was expected to follow 45 days thereafter.
With the permitting a quarter ahead of schedule, TMAC has indicated that it was evaluating advanced exploration and development strategies for Madrid North, which could deliver ore the plant in 2019.
“This is another timely and significant milestone in our permitting path. TMAC looks forward to working with the Kitikmeot Inuit Association and responsible government agencies as we enter into the development and monitoring phase of the Madrid and Boston project,” said TMAC president and CEO Jason Neal.
TMAC is already operating the Dorris mine –a part of the Hope Bay gold project, in the Kitikmeot region – where commercial production was achieved on June 1, 2015.