Marathon Gold has agreed to a contract with ABB to design and commission the process and power control system for its Valentine Gold Project in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, moving the project another significant step closer to a timely startup. The order was booked in the third quarter of 2023.
Currently under construction, the open-pit mining and conventional milling operation will become a flagship project for Marathon Gold as its Valentine Gold Project represents the largest undeveloped gold resource in the Atlantic Canada region. The company projects an average production of 195,000 oz of gold per year for the first 12 years of the expected 14-year mine life. The project remains on schedule to achieve mill commissioning in Q4 2024 and first gold production in Q1 2025.
“We’re very happy that ABB was selected for this project and we’re looking forward to working with the Marathon Gold team to keep it on track,” said Sachin Jari, Head of Mining, North America for ABB Process Industries. “It is set to become a very important gold mining operation in Canada and one that our experienced project team will make a positive impact on. They have decades of experience working with mining projects of similar stature in Canada and globally.”
ABB’s scope of delivery includes the design, supply and commissioning of the mine’s process and power control systems, both integrated under the company’s flagship ABB Ability™ System 800xA® distributed control system (DCS).
Additionally, by unifying these historically disparate systems under one common framework, mine operators can gain greater visibility across the operation, helping them find more ways to enhance safety, plant efficiency, staff responsiveness and profitability across the mining value chain. This integrated automation system will also be based on ABB’s Select I/O and Industrial Ethernet networks, which will help the project team mitigate any late changes or schedule delays to this project and simplify evolution of the mine’s automation systems through its various, planned production phases.
