Lynn Lake gold mine project seeks longer life, Ottawa seeks input

Ottawa is seeking public feedback as plans surrounding a Lynn Lake gold mine are set to change.

Alamos Gold, the company behind the in-construction open pit gold mine and metal mill, aims to change its development area and increase total ore production.

Alamos Gold began publicizing its $1 billion project in 2023. Shovels first turned in March at the site, approximately 1,000 kilometres north of Winnipeg. Production is anticipated to start in 2028.

Alamos Gold says new plans will increase total ore production at its MacLellan site by about 48 per cent — to 39.7 megatonnes from 26.8 Mt — through creating a new satellite pit, expanding its open pit and decreasing its ore cut-off grade.

The processing plant’s daily ore input capacity would increase — to 8,000 tonnes per day, from the current projection of 7,500 — while its total development area would decrease 2.5 per cent, proposed project changes read.

Alamos wants to extend the mine’s life to approximately 17 years, from the initial 13 years. The post-closure window would nearly double, a report by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada states.

Currently, the post-closure period is anticipated to last 21 years. New changes could lead to a post-closure window of at least four decades, because it’d take longer for the open pit to fill with water, an IAAC 18-page draft analysis on the changes reads.

The federal agency is seeking feedback from Indigenous groups and the public on the draft analysis by Nov. 15.

It has provisionally decided the project’s changes likely wouldn’t “increase the extent to which the effects described in the original environmental assessment are adverse,” the report reads.

Such results depend on Alamos implementing changes recommended by the IAAC, like monitoring water flows and pH levels of more water bodies than previously decided.

Both Lynn Lake Mayor Brandon Dulewich and the Manitoba Métis Federation plan to submit feedback.

“We’re definitely in favour of the mine life going for longer if everything is done in a safe manner and environmental impact is taken into consideration,” Dulewich said.

He hadn’t fully reviewed the IAAC’s draft analysis by Friday afternoon. He’s briefly talked with Alamos about another gold deposit it reported, he said.

An Alamos Gold spokesperson wasn’t available for a phone interview Friday due to northern travel. Rebecca Thompson, the company’s vice-president of public affairs, wrote in an email that Indigenous nations were engaged with before and during the submission of Alamos Gold’s alterations.

Alamos shared a draft of its notice of change with 13 Indigenous groups. It hadn’t gotten feedback at submission time, the IAAC’s analysis reads.

The MMF wasn’t properly consulted, said Peter Fleming, the federation’s natural resources minister.

“We do have some concerns,” Fleming said. “With the gold mine, there is always a positive economic spin-off for the communities, but we can’t allow the short-term positive spin-off to outweigh the long-term negative gains.”

The MMF shares environmental concerns raised by federal agencies in the IAAC’s analysis, Fleming said. Water quantity and quality, and Indigenous peoples’ health, were covered. “The Red River Métis government is very concerned about these effects, and we’re prepared to do whatever we have to do to have them addressed.”

The IAAC proposes to modify its decision statement to reflect project changes. The decision statement includes updates to address environmental concerns.

Alamos Gold’s application reflects a general “amendment creep” occurring in the mining industry, said James Beddome, executive director of the Manitoba Eco-Network.

“The approval is granted for the product originally, and then it’s modified and it’s modified,” Beddome said. “That piecemeal approach can seem to be, I think, sometimes intentional.”

He didn’t know specifics of Alamos Gold’s situation, Beddome said.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com