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Kitco Mining on-site coverage of Explore 2026 is presented by Radisson Mining.
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Welcome back to Kitco Mining's ongoing coverage from Explore 2026 in Montreal.
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Joining us now is Andréane Boisvert, VP Environment and Community Relations at Goldfields.
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Welcome, Andréane.
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Thank you.
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Thank you for having me.
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So Goldfields is a global gold producer.
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You have operations in Latin America, Africa, Australia as well.
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And one project right here in Canada, and it's the Canadian project that's uh that's made news this week.
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So tell us about uh this is the uh windfall project in Quebec.
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Exactly.
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So this week at uh Goldfields we're celebrating the uh obtaining the environmental authorization to move the project forward uh from the government of Quebec, and this milestone really represents a lot for us.
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It allows us to move uh the project towards construction and eventually operations.
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Great.
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So that so what was this uh what was the journey like?
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This is a multi-year process, obviously, especially in in jurisdictions like Canada, where things are you get all the benefits of regulatory clarity, of uh of stability, you know, political, economic.
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You also get some of the some of the lag times involved in this.
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So how what what went into this this process of getting to this to this milestone on the project?
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Um you're right.
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It is it is a long journey to make it to this point.
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We submitted our environmental impact assessment study for windfall in March of 2023.
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So it was a three and a half year journey to make it to this point.
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Um in Quebec, the regulatory framework is uh is very stable.
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It is a top-tier mining jurisdiction, but it also means that uh there is a lot of oversight and questions that are asked of us.
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And so uh we have been going through that process, which is basically a question and answer period where the government issues questions, we submit our answers back, and then they ask follow-up questions.
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And then at the end of that journey, there's also public hearings that are organized with the project within the host communities so that they can provide their own feedback, which leads to additional questions and then answers again from our end.
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And so it's uh all those efforts that were put forward that allowed us to make it to this point this year in October.
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Right.
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So I saw that you had the um you had the approval or the the finalization of the process with the local community was earlier in the summer, or was it in the spring or summer?
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It was um it was in the spring, late spring.
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Right.
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Um so in June we signed the Yukamau agreement with the Cree First Nation of Waswanape, the Cree Nation government, and the Grand Council of the Cree's, which is an IBA type of agreement uh with the First Nation uh groups that are associated with the Windfall project.
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And that was obviously a very important milestone for us at Goldfields to achieve this the signature of this historic agreement.
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Um, but it also uh gives the community the sense that all of the concerns that were brought forward have been dealt with diligently and it also provides support on the community side to the windfall project.
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Right.
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So then what does the windfall project uh represent for the company going forward?
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Obviously, this is a very, this is a this is a uh a very large uh potential mine here.
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So what's the uh what what are you what is it representing within the company's broader portfolio?
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Well, Windfall is obviously the project within Goldfields, and so we have eight operating mines, as you mentioned, um, in other jurisdictions, but the first one in Canada.
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Um and so it is Goldfields' way of getting uh into the Canadian space and allowing us to develop further in this jurisdiction.
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And so it's very exciting for us to be able to make it to the step.
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It comes two years after the acquisition of the Cisco Mining and therefore the full um ownership of the Windfall project.
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And so this is a project that will likely produce around 300,000 ounces a year, and it will help um bring a little bit more depth into the goldfields global portfolio.
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All right.
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And you'll you'll also be issuing your Q3 operating update actually tomorrow.
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So it's a a busy week, uh, a busy week for goldfields.
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So what I guess you can't tell us uh specific numbers and things that are coming out tomorrow, but can you give us a sense of what uh what we'd be hearing overall?
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What's the what's the how was Q3 for Goldfields?
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Um it's a continuation of our H1 results that came out in August, which demonstrates that uh you know we are producing on target and and maintaining the momentum that was uh that was uh sort of uh stabilized uh in the first uh half of the year.
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And so our operation numbers will be published and we'll be able to provide more feedback as to how close we are to our end-of-year targets.
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Okay.
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And so what are what are some of those end-of-year targets and what are what should we be watching for from goldfields in the new year?
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Well, for windfall specifically, we are now going to be able to move to the next uh stage, which is uh remobilizing the site.
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Um, in August, we uh stopped our underground operations because we uh our bulk sample permit uh elapsed.
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And now with the authorization uh moving forward, we'll be able to remobilize and reopen our underground activities, including exploration.
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But it will also allow us to bring the construction crews on site to begin some of the preparatory work, the civil works that are required, and the installation of the worker camp that is needed to begin construction.
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So for us at Windfall, it means until the end of the year a lot of sort of ramping up of the civil uh works and construction activities leading to an FID possibly by February of next year.
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So working on the execution and the schedule and the capital estimates so that we can provide the oversight uh and guidance to our board of uh directors that will uh allow us to move forward with a full-blown construction by the uh beginning of next year.
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Great.
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Well, it sounds like uh exciting times uh for goldfields, but also specifically here in Canada.
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Absolutely.
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Yeah, very excited.
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Great.
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Well, thank you so much for joining us.
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Thank you for having me.
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There's plenty more to come from Explore 2026 here in Montreal.
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I'm Ernest Hoffman for Kitco Mining.
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Make sure you're subscribed to receive all of our updates.
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Kitco Mining on site coverage of Explore 2026 is presented by Radisson Mining.