Monarques Gold has decided to start up its Beacon mill in Val-d’Or. The mill is located on Route 117, within 500 m

of the railway line and less than 10 km from the Beaufor mine. The Corporation has allocated a budget of C$1.5 million to upgrade the facility, and expects to commission the 750 t/d plant in the last quarter of 2018.

The Beacon mill remained in a very good condition over the shutdown period. It has its operating permits, including a certificate of authorisation from the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and the Fight a gainst Climate Change to process 1,800,000 t of tailings, or approximately nine years of mineral processing at full capacity.

The Corporation has also retained SNC-Lavalin to do the engineering work required to upgrade and restart the tailings management facility, and in May will file an updated closure plan with the MERN (Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources), which must approve the plan before the mill can be commissioned. “This is a strategic decision for Monarques, as we expect to be able to operate the Beacon mill at full capacity for a long time,” said Jean-Marc Lacoste, President and Chief Executive Officer of Monarques. “We are also proud to have excess demand for our custom milling services, as it reflects the quality of the service provided by our employees at the Camflo mill, which is currently operating at full capacity.

These activities are also profitable for Monarques, of course, and will be even more so once we are producing at our

full authorised capacity of 2,350 t/d for the Beacon and Camflo mills.”