The Golden Giant mine operated for more than 20 years, making annual multi-million contributions to the local, provincial and national societies and economies. The mine, which is owned by NEWMONT CANADA and located in the Hemlo area in northwestern Ontario, is moving on to the rehabilitation phase of its life. The last ore from the mine has been hoisted, the mine becomes inactive this summer and closure and reclamation activities, which have commenced, are scheduled into 2010.
Although, economic and corporate statistics don't always fully capture a mine's contributions in areas such as the skill development of human resources, the enhancement of communities, spin-off economic activities and infrastructure support for communities, perhaps it is time to reflect on some of the statistics we do have measurements for from the Golden Giant mine.
This precious metal operation came into production with an initial capital cost of $290 million. The mine produced 6.7 million ounces of gold for total revenue of about $3.2 billion. Over the life of the mine, Golden Giant had expenditures of $1.9 billion, which supported other industries, and paid corporate and mining taxes in the range of $660 million. The mine paid $440 million in salaries and wages to staff. In the Marathon and Manitouwadge areas, the mine paid $23.8 million in local taxes and directly donated $1.5 million to local charities.
On an annual basis, in the last years of its operation the mine employed a workforce of about 250 people, produced 160,000 ounces of gold and had a payroll of $20 million$770,000 every two weeks. Local suppliers were the recipients of about $5 million in expenditures, and local taxes paid by the mine were approximately $1.06 million.
Mines are wealth-creators, people-developers and problem-solvers. Over the past 20 years, hundreds of people involved with the Golden Giant mine enhanced their personal development, earned a decent living, paid their taxes and built their community. The mine enriched government coffers, supported local towns and benefited its many supplierslarge and smallby being a good customer. As it eases into its reclamation and closure stage, we know the Golden Giant mine has helped to make Ontario a better and a richer place.
Peter McBride is manager of communications for the Ontario Mining Association. He can be reached at pmcbride@oma.on.ca.
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