SSR Mining Plans Restart of Seabee Gold Operations After Wildfire Shutdown
SSR Mining (TSX:SSRM,NASDAQ:SSRM) announced that operations at its Seabee site in Northern Saskatchewan will resume by the second half of October after a temporary shutdown caused by wildfire activity last month.
The fire, which led to a total evacuation of personnel, impacted some remote equipment at the site. Crucial infrastructure, including the Santoy underground mine and the Seabee process plant, were largely unaffected.
In the aftermath of the evacuation, a small team remained on site to work with the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency to manage the situation. With the fire risk now significantly reduced, the company has cleared its workforce to return and begin repairing damaged equipment, including power poles and piping.
SSR also said in its Monday (September 23) release that it will provide updated production and cost guidance when it releases its third quarter financial results. Seabee’s output for 2024 was previously projected at 75,000 to 85,000 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of between US$1,495 and US$1,535 per payable ounce.
SSR acquired Seabee in 2016 when it purchased Claude Resources. The mine is about 125 kilometers northeast of La Ronge, Saskatchewan, and consists of two main mining areas: the Seabee underground mine and the Santoy mine.
Santoy has been in commercial production since 2014, while Seabee, which began operations in 1991, exhausted its mineral resources in 2018. All ore from the mining operations is processed at the Seabee mill, which has also been running since 1991. The mill produces gold doré bars that are shipped to third-party refineries for final processing.
SSR has made efforts to optimize operations at Seabee, including process improvements and exploration activities. The acquisition of Taiga Gold in April 2022 expanded the company’s exploration platform.
According to SSR’s website, the Seabee site’s proven and probable mineral reserves currently total 343,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 5.17 grams per metric ton (g/t). Its measured and indicated resources stand at 218,000 ounces of gold grading 4.36 g/t, while its inferred resources total 463,000 ounces grading 5.2 g/t.
The company continues to explore opportunities for reserve growth, particularly at the Santoy and Gap Hangingwall targets. SSR is also conducting further analysis and seeking permits for potential future mining at the Porky/Porky West area, where mineralization has been identified along a strike length of 2.5 kilometers.
Beyond Seabee, SSR has a portfolio of mining assets across the Americas. These include the Marigold mine, an open-pit gold mine located in Nevada, and the Puna operations, a silver-lead-zinc mine in Argentina. It also holds several development projects, including the San Luis gold-silver project in Peru and the Pitarrilla silver project in Mexico.
The company has faced challenges elsewhere in its portfolio. Earlier this year, SSR’s Çöpler gold mine in Turkey was temporarily closed following a heap leach landslide that resulted in the deaths of nine workers.
Work to resume normal operations is underway, with cleanup efforts at the site involving the removal of an estimated 10 million metric tons of material.
Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.