Several notable mining projects began operations in 2024, including what will be one of Canada’s top five producing gold mines; the Onslow Iron ore project in Western Australia (WA), which aims to use autonomous road trains from 2025; and one of the world’s biggest diamond mines.
Côté Gold mine, Canada
In August, around four months after the first gold pour, Iamgold and Sumitomo announced the start of commercial production at the open-pit Côté Gold Mine in Ontario, Canada.
With an estimated mine life of around 18 years and average annual production expected to reach 495,000oz in the first six years, Côté Gold is expected to be one of the largest gold mines in Canada.
The mine is now 70% owned by Iamgold after the company exercised the right to repurchase a 9.7% interest from Sumitomo for $377m (C$539.85m) in November 2024. Japan-based Sumitomo holds the remaining 30%.
Côté Gold has two Caterpillar 6060 electric shovels and 18 model 793 autonomous haul trucks in operation, with an additional three haul trucks to be commissioned by the start of 2025.
Onslow iron ore project, Australia
The Onslow Iron project in WA delivered its first ore on ship ahead of schedule in May 2024. The mine is expected to ramp up to nameplate capacity of 35 million tonnes per annum by June 2025.
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By GlobalData
The project is owned by Mineral Resources (60.3%), Baowu (18.7%), POSCO (10.3%) and AMCI (10.7%)
Onslow Iron is planning to use autonomous 330-tonne road trains to transport ore 150km along a private haul road to Ashburton Port. In September, MinRes announced that Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners had agreed to purchase a 49% stake in the haul road for A$1.3bn ($866m). The haul road was completed in November.
Chris Ellison, managing director of MinRes, is hoping the road trains will be autonomous “in the next three to four months”.
Luele diamond mine, Angola
In January, a huge new diamond mine started operating in Angola. The Luele mine, with an expected mine life of 60 years, is in Lunda Sul Province, north-east Angola.
The mine is estimated to be one of the world’s largest by resource, with an estimated 628 million carats of diamonds at a depth of 600m.
Rómulo Mucase, chairman of the board of directors of Sociedade Mineira do Luele, said in November that 4.4 million carats of diamonds were produced during the first year of operations, with more than 1,000 jobs created by the project.
Honeymoon uranium project, Australia
The Honeymoon uranium project in South Australia restarted operations in April 2024. The mine, around 80km north-west of the town of Broken Hill, operated from 2011 until November 2013, when production was suspended due to low uranium prices.
The project was sold to Boss Energy in December 2015. The company completed a feasibility study in January 2020 and decided to restart the project in June 2022.
Boss Energy said in a November presentation that Honeymoon is ramping up on schedule to achieve nameplate production of 2.45 million pounds (lb) of triuranium octoxide (U3O8) per annum. It is on track to produce 850,000lb of U3O8 in fiscal year 2025.
Honourable mentions
The previously producing Alta Mesa uranium project in Texas, US, owned by enCore Energy (70%) and Boss Energy (30%), was restarted in June, making enCore the only uranium producer in the US with multiple production facilities in operation.
Another uranium mine that started up in the US was Energy Fuels’ Pinyon Plain operation in Arizona, near the Grand Canyon.
This week, Peabody Energy confirmed that it had made the first shipment from its Centurion coal mine in Australia. The mine’s annual production is expected to average 4.7 million tonnes over a 25-year lifespan. The mine marks a “first strategic step” in transforming Peabody into a primarily metallurgical coal producer.
Buoyed by high gold prices, several gold mines also started operation in 2024, including the Greenstone project (Ontario, Canada), Hochschild Mining’s Mara Rosa project (Brazil), the Lafigue project (Ivory Coast) and Gold Fields’ Salares Norte (Chile).
Note: This list is not comprehensive, it just includes a snapshot of some of the mines that started operating in 2024.
