'What have you done? What did you buy?' - Great Bear vindication for Kinross Gold's Paul Rollinson

(Kitco News) - The CEO of Kinross Gold, Paul Rollinson, is feeling vindication for his early call on Great Bear Resources.

Last week Rollinson spoke to Kitco Mining at the Gold Forum Americas / XPL-DEV 2024 in Colorado.

Founded in 1993, Kinross Gold is a senior gold mining company with a diverse portfolio of mines and projects in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Chile, and Mauritania. Last decade the miner suffered some setbacks having to exit Russia and Central America. In 2022 Kinross had to divest from Russia after the country was sanctioned due to the Ukraine-Russia war. In 2013 Kinross exited Fruta del Norte in Ecuador after Kinross couldn't come to terms with the government on advancing the project.

In 2021 Kinross Gold bought Great Bear Resources for C$1.8 billion in a cash and stock deal. The deal raised eyebrows, since Great Bear was still an early story with no PEA.  

"The challenge with Canada: it gets competitive and expensive quickly," said Rollison. "So if we're going to be successful in getting quality [assets] in Canada, we're going to have to make a call—a geologic call—early.

"There was no declared resource, and so the market was saying—as expected: 'Oh my God, what have you done? What did you buy? There's no declared resource,'" said Rollison. "We knew there was a mine."

Just before Beaver Creek, Kinross was able to release a preliminary economic assessment on Great Bear. In the company's news release, the PEA outlined a high-grade combined open pit and underground mine with an initial planned mine life of approximately 12 years and production cost of sales of $594 per ounce. The project is expected to produce over 500,000 ounces per year at an all-in sustaining cost of approximately $800 per ounce during the first 8 years through a conventional, modest capital 10,000 tonne per day (tpd) mill.

"I'm happy to say, 30 months later, what we see is a very high-quality mine," said Rollison. "It will be one of the best gold mines in Canada. So, it's just been a great example of getting in early, doing the technical work, having the confidence."

Coverage of the Gold Forum Americas / XPL-DEV 2024 is sponsored by Metalla Royalty.

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