Agnico Eagle Suspends Barnat Mining Due to Rock Movement
Agnico Eagle reports that a rock mass movement occurred on July 1 along the north wall of the Barnat open pit at the Canadian Malartic complex in Quebec, Canada. There were no injuries, equipment damage or environmental impact as a result of the event. As a precautionary measure, the company has temporarily suspended mining operations in the Barnat open pit. The company's technical teams are conducting a geotechnical assessment to confirm stability and determine the appropriate path forward. During the suspension of in-pit mining operations, the Canadian Malartic processing plant will be supplied with low-grade ore from existing stockpiles in place of planned Barnat ore feed. This approach is expected to help mitigate the near-term impact on production. Production in Q2 was not affected and the company expects production for Q2 of approximately 845K ounces of gold, slightly ahead of plan. However, based on currently available information, the company expects the rock mass movement to reduce production in the second half of 2026 at Canadian Malartic by approximately 60K-80K ounces of gold. Accordingly, the company expects full year 2026 production to be near the lower end of its previously disclosed guidance range of 3.3M-3.5M ounces of gold. The Barnat open pit was expected to be mined out by early 2029. The event is currently expected to result in reduced production in both 2027 and 2028 of up to approximately 150K ounces of gold per year. The company is continuing to evaluate opportunities to mitigate this potential impact to its production outlook. The company believes that the rock mass movement will not affect the development or production outlook for the Odyssey mine and does not change the pathway to achieving annual production of 1M ounces of gold from the Canadian Malartic complex in the early 2030s.
