On February 17th hundreds of people gathered to officially celebrate the successful life of our Lapa mine.
Why celebrate at the end of a mine’s life?
For Agnico Eagle, we are celebrating because Lapa stands as a testament to the spirit and resiliency of our employees, it is demonstrating best practices in mine closure, and it underscores our commitment to doing things the Agnico Eagle Way.
Lapa began operating in May 2009. It has been one of our highest grade mines but is also our smallest in terms of tonnage. The mine was originally slated to close mid-2016 but thanks to the ingenuity of our colleagues there, we are still mining two years later!
Christian Provencher, Vice-President, Canada, explains: “The team at Lapa has overcome many challenges. First, the narrow veins combine with higher dilution than anticipated, tough ground conditions and then ore grades that were lower than originally planned. We were told the daily tonnage could never reach 1,500 tonnes per day (TPD) but with new mining methods, the team got that number up to 1,800 TPD. So we are very proud of the team’s resiliency; it meant we could keep extending the mine’s life.”
He adds, “The management team was always transparent about Lapa’s limited mine life. And from day one, they put safety first. That allowed employees to remain focused on the task-at-hand and to work safely as a team.” In 2017, Lapa won the Ryan Safety Award for the lowest reportable injury frequency in the province of Quebec.
The Agnico Eagle Way was also at the core of how our Human Resources (HR) team approached the workforce transition planning process, starting well in advance back in 2014. The goal was to ensure that permanent employees could successfully transfer to other Agnico Eagle operations whether LaRonde or Goldex in the Abitibi region or one of our sites in Nunavut, if desired. The HR team’s careful consideration throughout the process has now led to a truly remarkable outcome with no employees losing their jobs as a result of the mine’s closure.
Some mining at Lapa will still continue until the third quarter of 2018 and approximately 100 people will be remaining on site to dismantle valuable equipment and move mobile equipment and supplies to other sites. Once completed official reclamation and restoration work will then get underway, with full closure anticipated in 2026-2027.
Our congratulations to all Lapa team members, past and present. We thank you for your dedication to excellence and for making our Lapa mine such a resounding success story!