Might a gold-fuelled resurgence await the former northern Manitoba mining town of Lynn Lake?
AuRico Gold, an intermediate gold mining and exploration company, held an open house in Lynn Lake last month to talk about its work in the community.
Displays were set up covering each aspect of upcoming environmental baseline work, the 2015 drilling program and a feasibility study.
Chris Rockingham, AuRico vice-president of exploration and business development, says the company wanted to speak to the citizens directly about what it is doing.
“We signed an agreement with Carlisle Goldfields, which has been in Lynn Lake for quite some time now,” said Rockingham. “The deal is that we purchased a part of two deposits, Carlisle, which is a former producer, and Farley Lake, which is also a former gold producer in the 1980s and late ’90s.”
AuRico has also signed an exploration agreement with Lynn Lake-based Marcel Colomb First Nation, and had previous meeting with them as well.
AuRico will be doing a feasibility study over the next two and a half years. Rockingham says this includes some additional drilling. An environmental baseline study has also been initiated.
Lynn Lake Mayor James Lindsay says the residents’ reaction to the March 25 open house was positive.
“The economic activity that these projects bring has been long awaited for by Lynn Lake,” said Lindsay. “There have always been concerns about mining developments here, given the past history of companies coming in, removing resources and then leaving behind an ecological mess when they go.”
Rockingham says AuRico hopes to show community members this time it will be different.
“In my own mind I think we have to give people a high degree of comfort that the same thing isn’t going to happen again,” he said. “There’s geological evidence and the way our company operates, and the different regulatory environment since Lynn Lake was in its heyday, I think between those factors we can give people a high degree of confidence that what we’re doing is not going to be a repeat of history.”
Lindsay says with AuRico coming into Lynn Lake it will bring a measure of economic revitalization.
“Their current plans call for a working mine life of about 12 years once operational, which could be extended should their current exploration program yield the results they hope it will. The Lynn Lake Gold Camp has always been of interest to the industry, and with the potential for AuRico and Carlisle to develop that potential, their plans move us towards a sounder economic base.”
Currently there is a team working in Lynn Lake, and once the spring break-up hits, more people will be working in the community.
– Thompson Citizen
