Stock Symbol: AEM (NYSE and TSX)
(All amounts expressed in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted)
TORONTO, Feb. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ – Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE: AEM) (TSX: AEM) (“Agnico Eagle” or the “Company”) is pleased to provide an update on year-end 2024 mineral reserves and mineral resources, exploration activities at mine sites and select advanced projects in 2024, and the Company’s exploration plans and guidance for 2025. The Company’s exploration focus remains on extending mine life at existing operations, testing near-mine opportunities and advancing key value driver projects.
“I would like to commend our exploration team for their performance in 2024, which set a record in terms of safety and completed our ambitious exploration program at lower costs than planned. Through our optimization of drilling productivity and innovation efforts, we successfully reduced costs by approximately 8%. The exploration program continued to yield exciting results at our key mines and pipeline projects, which drove the replacement of our mineral reserves and the increase in our inferred mineral resources by nearly 10%, primarily from additions at Detour Lake, Canadian Malartic and Hope Bay,” said Guy Gosselin, Agnico Eagle’s Executive Vice-President, Exploration. “Our 2025 exploration program is the continuation of this effort to define the full potential of our operating assets, aiming to extend the life of mine at existing operations and advance the assessment of the potential of our pipeline projects to support the Company’s vision for future growth,” added Mr. Gosselin.
Highlights from 2024 include:
GOLD MINERAL RESERVES
At December 31, 2024, the Company’s proven and probable mineral reserve estimate totalled 54.3 million ounces of gold (1,277 million tonnes grading 1.32 g/t gold). This represents a 0.9% (0.47 million ounce) increase in contained ounces of gold compared to the proven and probable mineral reserve estimate of 53.8 million ounces of gold (1,287 million tonnes grading 1.30 g/t gold) at year-end 2023 (see the Company’s news release dated February 15, 2024 for details regarding the Company’s December 31, 2023 proven and probable mineral reserve estimate).
The increase in mineral reserves at December 31, 2024 is the result of the replacement of 1.5 million ounces of gold from operating assets. In particular: Fosterville, Macassa (including Amalgamated Kirkland (“AK”) and Near Surface), Meliadine, Amaruq and LaRonde achieved a combined average mineral reserve replacement of 70% as a result of successful exploration and conversion drilling.
Some pipeline projects also significantly contributed to the global mineral reserve increase. At Upper Beaver, the completion of a technical evaluation during the fourth quarter of 2024, following the positive preliminary economic assessment completed in June 2024 (see the news release dated July 31, 2024), resulted in new mineral reserves containing a total of 2.77 million ounce of gold. The year-over-year new mineral reserve addition at Upper Beaver represents 1.37 million ounces of gold. At Wasamac, initial mineral reserves of 1.38 million ounces of gold were declared in December 2024. The progress in mineral reserve development at Upper Beaver and Wasamac is the result of efforts by the Company to leverage regional synergies following the recent transactions to consolidate the Kirkland Lake camp and the Malartic camp at Canadian Malartic and advance the “fill-the-mill” strategy.
Mineral reserves were calculated using a gold price of $1,450 per ounce for most operating assets, with exceptions that include: Detour Lake open pit using $1,400 per ounce; Amaruq using $1,650 per ounce; Pinos Altos using $1,800 per ounce; and variable assumptions for some other pipeline projects, including Wasamac using $1,650 per ounce. For detailed mineral reserves and mineral resources (“MRMR”) data, including the economic parameters used to estimate the mineral reserves and mineral resources and by-product silver, copper and zinc at mines and advanced projects, see “Detailed Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource Data (as at December 31, 2024)” and “Assumptions used for the December 31, 2024 mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates reported by the Company” below.
The ore extracted from the Company’s mines in 2024 contained 3.78 million ounces of gold in-situ (64.9 million tonnes grading 1.81 g/t gold).
The Company’s gold mineral reserves as at December 31, 2024 are set out in the table below, and are compared with the gold mineral reserves as at December 31, 2023. Data in this table and certain other data in this news release have been rounded to the nearest thousand and discrepancies in total amounts are due to rounding.
Proven & Probable
Gold Mineral Reserve (000s oz)
Average Mineral Reserve
Gold Grade (g/t)
Operation / Project
2024
2023
Change
2024
2023
Change
LaRonde mine
2,081
2,244
-163
6.03
6.40
-0.37
LaRonde Zone 5
659
636
23
2.21
2.20
0.01
LaRonde Total
2,740
2,880
-140
4.26
4.51
-0.24
Canadian Malartic mine
1,944
2,436
-491
0.81
0.83
-0.03
Odyssey deposit
317
310
8
2.27
2.17
0.10
East Gouldie
5,236
5,173
62
3.37
3.42
-0.05
Canadian Malartic Total
7,497
7,919
-421
1.83
1.73
0.10
Goldex
789
901
-112
1.57
1.59
-0.01
Akasaba West
138
143
-5
0.90
0.89
0.01
Wasamac
1,377
—
1,377
2.90
0.00
2.90
Detour Lake
(at or above 0.5 g/t)
15,636
16,594
-958
0.93
0.93
—
Detour Lake (below 0.5 g/t)
3,415
3,335
80
0.39
0.39
—
Detour Lake Total
19,051
19,928
-878
0.75
0.76
-0.01
Macassa
1,829
1,954
-125
10.50
14.45
-3.95
Macassa Near Surface
12
23
-11
5.31
5.93
-0.62
AK deposit
233
160
73
4.71
6.69
-1.98
Macassa Total
2,074
2,136
-62
9.18
13.11
-3.93
Upper Beaver
2,768
1,395
1,373
3.71
5.43
-1.72
Hammond Reef
3,323
3,323
—
0.84
0.84
—
Amaruq
1,609
1,837
-228
3.36
3.72
-0.36
Meadowbank Total
1,609
1,837
-228
3.36
3.72
-0.36
Meliadine
3,365
3,467
-102
5.29
5.91
-0.62
Hope Bay
3,398
3,397
1
6.52
6.52
—
Fosterville
1,650
1,682
-32
5.37
6.10
-0.73
Kittila
3,400
3,584
-184
4.16
4.14
0.02
Pinos Altos
433
546
-113
1.94
1.90
0.03
San Nicolás (50%)*
672
672
—
0.40
0.40
—
Total Mineral Reserves
54,284
53,811
474
1.32
1.30
0.02
*Agnico Eagle has agreed to subscribe for a 50% interest in San Nicolás, which will be contributed as study and development costs are incurred and, accordingly, Agnico Eagle’s share of the reported MRMR at San Nicolás is reported at a 50% level.
The Company estimates that at a gold price 10% higher than the assumed gold price (leaving other assumptions unchanged), there would be an approximate 13% increase in the gold contained in proven and probable mineral reserves. Conversely, the Company estimates that at a gold price 10% lower than the assumed gold price (leaving other assumptions unchanged), there would be an approximate 13% decrease in the gold contained in proven and probable mineral reserves.
GOLD MINERAL RESOURCES
At December 31, 2024, the Company’s measured and indicated mineral resource estimate totalled 43.0 million ounces of gold (1,167 million tonnes grading 1.14 g/t gold). This represents a 2.3% (1.0 million ounce) decrease in contained ounces of gold compared to the measured and indicated mineral resource estimate at year-end 2023 (see the Company’s news release dated February 15, 2024 for details regarding the Company’s December 31, 2023 measured and indicated mineral resource estimate).
The year-over-year decrease in measured and indicated mineral resources is primarily due to the upgrade of mineral resources at Upper Beaver and Wasamac to mineral reserves, largely offset by the successful conversion of inferred mineral resources into measured and indicated mineral resources at Detour Lake underground, East Malartic, Upper Beaver, Hope Bay and other sites.
At Detour Lake, since the March 31, 2024 technical report and updated mineral reserves and mineral resources estimate, the Company has continued to successfully convert inferred mineral resources into indicated mineral resources with a substantial addition of 2.0 million ounces of gold in total indicated mineral resources (0.7 million ounces of gold from 8.3 million tonnes grading 2.79 g/t gold inside the resource pit and 1.2 million ounces of gold from 17.7 million tonnes grading 2.14 g/t gold below and to the west of the resource pit).
At Hope Bay, following exploration success in the Patch 7 zone at the Madrid deposit, conversion drilling was accelerated, resulting in the declaration of an initial indicated mineral resource at December 31, 2024 of 0.9 million ounces of gold (4.3 million tonnes grading 6.64 g/t gold) in Patch 7, which also hosts an additional 0.8 million ounces of gold (4.4 million tonnes grading 5.40 g/t gold) in inferred mineral resources.
At Canadian Malartic, using the production knowledge from the open pit operation and improved confidence in the historical data, the Company reviewed and updated the mineral resources classification criteria and model in 2024 for the East Malartic deposit at the Odyssey underground mine, resulting in the successful conversion of 2.1 million ounces of gold into indicated mineral resources at East Malartic for a total of 2.9 million ounces of gold (57.4 million tonnes grading 1.98 g/t gold).
At December 31, 2024, the Company’s inferred mineral resource estimate totalled 36.2 million ounces of gold (451 million tonnes grading 2.49 g/t gold). This represents a 9.5% (3.1 million ounce) increase in contained ounces of gold compared to the inferred mineral resource estimate a year earlier (see the news release dated February 15, 2024 for details regarding the Company’s December 31, 2023 inferred mineral resource estimate).
The year-over-year increase in inferred mineral resources is primarily due to exploration drilling success at Detour Lake underground, East Gouldie, Hope Bay, Meliadine, Fosterville and Macassa.
In addition to the conversion of 1.2 million ounces of gold in underground indicated mineral resources below the Detour Lake resource pit since the March 31, 2024 technical report (see the news release dated June 19, 2024), the inferred mineral resources located below the resource pit and in the West Extension zone west of the resource pit were maintained at similar levels to the March 31, 2024 update, with 3.7 million ounces of gold (59.3 million tonnes grading 1.93 g/t gold) at year-end 2024.
The Company’s gold mineral resources as at December 31, 2024 are set out in the table below.
Measured & Indicated
Inferred
Gold Mineral Resources
Gold Mineral Resources
Operation / Project
Contained Gold
Gold Grade
Contained Gold
Gold Grade
(000 oz)
(g/t)
(000 oz)
(g/t)
LaRonde mine
705
3.75
281
5.39
LaRonde Zone 5
817
2.29
960
4.15
LaRonde Total
1,522
2.79
1,240
4.38
Canadian Malartic mine
—
—
129
0.72
Odyssey deposit
105
1.77
1,520
2.33
East Malartic
2,869
1.95
3,651
1.98
East Gouldie
257
1.52
4,557
2.32
Canadian Malartic Total
3,232
1.90
9,857
2.12
Goldex
1,604
1.64
885
1.62
Akasaba West
90
0.68
—
—
Wasamac
667
2.19
312
2.48
Detour Lake
15,259
0.69
6,605
1.65
Detour Lake Zone 58N
534
5.80
136
4.35
Detour Lake Total
15,793
0.71
6,742
1.67
Macassa
721
7.49
1,259
7.77
Macassa Near Surface
15
5.03
31
4.74
AK deposit
52
4.81
32
3.52
Macassa Total
788
7.16
1,322
7.44
Anoki-McBean
349
2.77
107
3.84
Upper Beaver
495
2.03
391
4.12
Upper Canada
722
2.15
1,863
3.11
Hammond Reef
2,298
0.54
—
—
Aquarius
856
2.15
14
3.59
Holt complex
1,699
4.52
1,310
4.48
Amaruq
1,277
4.01
592
4.65
Meliadine
1,714
3.82
2,225
5.92
Hope Bay
2,143
4.54
2,312
5.44
Fosterville
1,527
3.72
1,769
4.31
Northern Territory
1,668
2.38
1,376
2.40
