One million ounces of gold have come out of the Seabee Mine in northern Saskatchewan now.
For Claude Resources, Neil McMillan, president and CEO of Claude Resources, it’s a lot to celebrate. “It’s a wonderful accomplishment for our employees that have made this happen.”
The company opened the mine 20 years ago. At that time the price of gold was around $400 an ounce. Today, it’s over $1600.
Bill MacNeil, the founding director of the company, says Claude Resources has grown exponentially. “It’s wonderful to see what is going on up there now. We started at about 400 tonnes a day. We are at 800 tonnes a day now."
Gold reached the record high of $1900 an ounce in September. The price has since dropped, but an HSBC report released Friday forecasts the metal will return to the $1900 mark by the end of the year.
High prices have allowed Claude Resources to invest in exploration. McMillan says they've found another 1.3 million ounces at the Seabee Mine.
“We're just now getting to the point where we can start to see the doubling of our production there over the next four to five years. We have the ounces already identified and we have the infrastructure."
The company says with the way things are going they're confident it will take a lot less time to produce their next million ounces.
