QAMANITTUAQ/BAKER LAKE - Operations are back up to speed at Agnico-Eagle Mines's Meadowbank gold site, after a fire disrupted production in March.

Aerial view of the Meadowbank surface facilities, located 70 km north of Baker Lake. - photo courtesy of Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.

The company reduced on-site staff following the March 11 blaze, which broke out inside the kitchen at the mine, located 70 km north of Baker Lake. The fire completely destroyed the kitchen and dining room canteen facilities, limiting the food preparation capacity of the exploration camp, Nunavut Denis Gourde, general manager for Agnico-Eagle, told News/North at the time.

Full staffing, mining, and construction activities resumed in April, after a temporary replacement kitchen was airlifted from Arizona, Agnico-Eagle spokesperson Dale Coffin said.

"We are quite pleased with how well and quickly we were able to recover," Coffin said, adding no one was injured in the fire, which was caused by short circuited wiring under the floor. "Our team worked hard to get us back up to full capacity as quickly as we could."

In addition to the return of more than 600 Meadowbank employees on rotation, the mine tied in a second crusher last week. The additional crushing capacity is expected to exceed the mill's design thoroughput of 8,500 tons per day, Coffin said.

The company forecasts second-half gold production at Meadowbank to be 50 per cent higher than in the first half of 2011, a press release stated on June 27, with an expected thoroughput of 8,700 tonnes per day, at an average grade of 3.8 grams per tonne.

"Despite a difficult start to 2011, our Meadowbank mine has made good progress in ramping up operations and adding additional processing capacity," vice-chairman and chief executive officer Sean Boyd said in the release.

"As we continue to work on optimizing mining operations in the open pit, we are in a very good position to significantly increase gold production and reduce unit operating costs in the second half of 2011."

Agnico-Eagle Mines is also seeing improved operations at Meliadine, its second Kivalliq gold mine near Rankin Inlet, which is still in the exploration phase. To date, 40,000 metres of a planned 90,000 metres of mineralization, geotechnical and condemnation drilling has been done at the site.

"We are very encouraged and pleased with the results to date," Coffin said, adding they plan to "dramatically increase" the drill program in 2012. The company will be conducting a feasibility study with a production decision expected in 2013.

Agnico Eagle has an estimated 2.6 million ounces of probable gold reserves at Meliadine, and 3.5 million ounces of proven and probable gold at its Meadowbank gold mine.

Production initially began at Meadowbank in March 2010.

Shares of Toronto-based Agnico-Eagle closed at $60.98 Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

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