Agnico Eagle Mines chair Sean Boyd told Mining Journal's Chris Cann that Canada needed a strategy to develop the Arctic, warning that otherwise, it could end up on the back foot.

"Canada needs a strategy because, without one, it's hard to take advantage of the opportunity that we see being on the ground 365, 24/7," Boyd said to Cann in an interview last month.

"There is an absence of infrastructure there, so there is a need for the Western world to have governments work with industry to ensure that the right deposits are being built," he added.

Pointing to countries like China and Russia as having a robust Arctic strategy, Boyd said that there are great opportunities to be had in Canada's north but cautioned that it needed to be approached properly.

"China is working with Russia, spending multiples of what Canada is spending in the north," he said.

"We understand that the way to get out of the starting gate strongly is resource development, and then you can't just sit back and allow that to be the one-dimensional driver of economic growth," he explained.

"You have implications on the economic side with Indigenous reconciliation  (…) So there are multiple elements here. Energy, energy transition, clean energy, Indigenous economic opportunities, sovereignty, defence (…) and in order to coordinate all that, it is going to take discussion, and it's going to take an understanding of the opportunity."

Agnico's asset "will take some heavy lifting"

Boyd referenced the Hope Bay, TMAC asset it acquired from Shandong Gold in 2021, saying that "it is going to take some more heavy lifting to get the study and the place we need to get to."

"We've been spending a lot of time in Ottawa as a large mining company in Canada, basically sharing our views on the opportunity set, letting Ottawa know that we have," Boyd said.

He added that there was another opportunity "right on Canada's northern coast" that the company was also interested in.

"The message to the government is, look, if you want to implement the strategy, you should work with mining companies because this is our job, and what we're good at is getting things done quickly."

"We can build a C$1.5 billion mine in two parts. Governments tend to move slower, but if we work together and understand where we need to get to, that's how we can take maximum advantage," he added.

Respect

Boyd emphasised the need for respect on all levels between junior partners and host communities. 

"I learned early on, when Paul Penna hired me, that our relationship was to our shareholders - they're the owners, we're the workers, and our job is to do this," he said.

"And when we go into new regions, we know we're visitors. We've got to respect the people who own the land, and [we have to] do things properly. When we deal with juniors, we say, hey, we were in that seat 30 years ago, so we know that if we were sitting there 30 years back, we want to be treated with respect."

"The days of big conglomerates going into regions and saying, ‘OK, we're the new sheriff in town, everybody get to the sidelines because it's our way of the highway' - you know that never worked, but it more so doesn't work now because people need to see the tangible benefits," Boyd said.

Results

Today, Agnico reported record financial results for the third consecutive quarter, with net earnings of US$472 million on revenues of $2.1 billion for the quarter to June 30, a 45.8% increase over the same period of 2023.

The company produced 895,838oz of gold during the quarter at an all-in-sustaining cost of $1169/oz, a 1.8% decrease over the March quarter.

The company plans to invest $100 million per year for the next three years to advance its organic growth projects at Canadian Malartic, Detour Underground and Upper Beaver near Macassa.