![]() High grade gold ore from Red Lake Mine | |
Location | |
---|---|
Location | Red Lake |
Province | Ontario |
Country | Canada |
Coordinates | 51°3′40.16″N93°44′35.34″W / 51.0611556°N 93.7431500°W |
Production | |
Products | Gold |
History | |
Opened | 1949 |
Owner | |
Company | Evolution Mining |
Website | Red Lake |
Year of acquisition | 2019 |
The Red Lake mine was one of the largest gold mines in Canada and in the world. [1] The mine is located in northwestern Ontario at Red Lake. [1] The mine had estimated reserves of 3.23 million oz of gold in 2013. [1] Note that the Campbell and Red Lake mines are (or were) mining the same orebody, commonly referred to as the Campbell-Red Lake deposit. [2]
The Red Lake Mining District has produced over 26 million ounces of gold through 2020, worth over $US 46 billion at 2020 prices. The two principal mines, Campbell and Red Lake, both have historic ore grades averaging about 0.57 oz/ton Au (22 g/tonne). [3] One famous sample, the "Campbell Mine Whopper", contained 431 ounces of gold in a football-sized rock. [2]
The rocks and mineralization features in this district are complex. The host rock here is a metamorphosed tholeiitic basalt dating to ~2.85 billion years (early Neoarchean). This basalt has been subjected to biotite-carbonate alteration and auriferous silicification. Gold mineralization has been dated to 2.712-2.723 billion years (during collision-related emplacement of several nearby igneous intrusions - Uchian Phase of the Kenoran Orogeny), and at 2.63-2.66 or 2.699 billion years (during a regional thermal event or another igneous intrusive event). [4]
On November 25, 2019, Newmont Goldcorp announced an agreement to sell the Red Lake complex to Evolution Mining. [5] As of early 2021, Evolution has announced resources of 2.9 Million oz Au at 6.9 gms Au/tonne, with a further 5.7 Million oz at 7.7 g/t indicated and 5.3 Million oz at 6.49 g/t inferred. Other projects in the district also are reporting promising results. [2]
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