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QAMANITTUAQ/BAKER LAKE - Agnico-Eagle's $548 million Meadowbank gold project is about to soar.

Meadowbank, located 70 km north of Baker Lake, has a projected mine life of 10 years and is on schedule to begin commercial production in March 2010.

Surveyor Roy Avaala of Baker Lake works at Agnico-Eagle's Meadowbank gold project, which is set to begin commercial production in March 2010. - photo courtesy of Agnico-Eagle

"The commissioning should begin in January, so production should happen around March," said Denis Gourde, on-site project manager for Agnico-Eagle.

If all goes as planned, Meadowbank will be Nunavut's second producing mine, operating in the wake of Tahera Diamond Corporation's Jericho mine, which closed up shop in April after applying for bankruptcy protection in January.

Meadowbank will also be Nunavut's first major gold mine. While gold now stands at a little more than $800 an ounce, gold prices were hovering over $900 when Agnico-Eagle decided to accelerate its commercial production start date earlier this year.

Activity at the Meadowbank site has been steadily busy for the last two years with construction of the future mine's infrastructure.

"We completed the road construction from Baker Lake to the site," said Gourde. "Now we're doing the building construction. The target is to try and enclose the three main buildings (the power plant, mill and services building) by the end of this year."

Last year the company built a 100-km all-weather access road from Baker Lake to Meadowbank, spending between $40 and $50 million.

The company planned on moving 25,000 tonnes to the site this year. As of last week, 22,000 tonnes had been shipped to site.

"We still have a few barges that are coming from Churchill, Man.," said Gourde.

Gourde added an average of 330 people were on the site at any time this summer. While 15 per cent of the contractors' employees were from Baker Lake and other Kivalliq communities, 30 per cent of Agnico-Eagle's own staff was locally-based.

With construction of the project's central dike yet to begin, "It's going to be a very busy year," said Gourde of next summer.

As for the actual mine operation, Gourde estimated a total of around 500 people will be hired to work the mine, with 270 to 300 at the site on any given day. Staff will work two weeks in and two weeks out.

Hiring locally will be priority, said Gourde.

"The first community is Baker Lake," he said. "As the pool of labour will not be available anymore out of Baker Lake, there's going to be (the rest of) the Kivalliq area. We're talking about Rankin, Arviat, Chesterfield Inlet."

The benefits have already extended to some businesses based in Baker Lake.

Calm Air International has especially had its plate full as a result of Meadowbank, according to Nunavut area manager Karen Yip.

"We've been, I think, significantly busy this summer in organizing things for the mine," said Yip.

"We've had passenger charters. We've had an increased number of freight flights."