Australian gold major Newcrest has outlined a three-phase programme for its newly acquired Brucejack mine, in Canada, focusing on optimising operations and growing mineral resources.

The company this week completed the acquisition of Pretium Resources, which owned the Brucejack mine in the highly prospective Golden Triangle region of British Columbia.

“We are very excited to add Brucejack to Newcrest’s portfolio, which now includes six tier-one assets. Through this acquisition, the continued development of our outstanding organic growth pipeline is expected to remain strong until at least 2030, and we have a range of further upside opportunities being progressed across the portfolio,” commented MD and CEO Sandeep Biswas.

Including Brucejack and Newcrest’s 32% attributable share of production from Fruta del Norte, Newcrest expects to produce more than two-million ounces a year until at least 2030.

The guidance is a base-case projection only, the miner said, noting that it had not considered further extensional, near mine and regional exploration opportunities, nor mine-to-mill optimisation that it expected to achieve at Brucejack.

Biswas said that Newcrest would pursue efficiencies to simplify mining and increase productivity through a holistic view of the Brucejack operations and orebody.

In Phase 1, Newcrest would look to optimise Brucejack with synergy benefits forecast of about C$15-million to C$20-million a year through leveraging supply, logistics, travel and procurement opportunities with the Red Chris mine, which is about 140 km away.

In the next phase, the miner would focus on realising the full “uplift” potential of Brucejack by increasing mill throughput capacity and improving mining performance. Newcrest is targeting an increase in the process plant capacity from 3 800 t/d to between 4 000 t/d and 5 000 t/d. The uplift would be subject to study outcomes and the required permitting and approvals.

Another key component of Phase 2 would be to increase mine capacity.

Phase 3, which would run in parallel to the other phases, would focus on near-mine and extensional exploration upside. An aggressive drilling programme is planned for the next several years with about 200 000 m to be completed in 2022.

“The land package is largely unexplored and very early in its life, and we see significant potential beyond Valley of the Kings and Golden Marmot,” said Biswas.

Newcrest would announce its exploration spend for the 2022 financial year, as well as Brucejack's all-in sustaining costs and capital spend for the year with the March quarterly report, due to be released on April 28. The mine would produce between 95 000 oz and 115 000 oz of gold during Newcrest's ownership in the 2022 financial year.