Golden Band could restart La Ronge mill next summer

Golden Band Resources could restart its Jolu mill operations in the La Ronge area next summer.

Earlier this year, the gold producer laid off 120 workers at its operations in the area. Golden Band cited falling gold prices and the ore quality that was below what was anticipated at the Roy Lloyd and Golden Heart mines in its decision to shut down production.

“We’re looking at various options that are available to us, and that can change of course, but considering that we’re going to go into the winter and it would be, I think, folly to be thinking of opening up in the winter and we haven’t got all the resources laid out in terms of grades and costs and so on that we’d like to get done by now, and that’s going to take some time to do,” CEO Paul Saxton said.

In the Town of La Ronge, the effects of the shutdown are being felt. Mayor Thomas Sierzycki said that time gaps – like the prospective summer 2015 restart timeline – creates additional stress on the workers and on their families.

“Of course, people can’t sit around and wait for commerce to come available. They’re going to be seeking work and they may or may not be able to go back to that occupation when the time does come,” he said.

Court proceedings

'The impact of this trauma will echo for generations': court case surrounding La Ronge woman's death reaches conclusion

12h ago

Going Global

P.A.'s Zablocki named to Team Canada for U18 Women's World Championships

12h ago

Election 2024

Birch Hills staff won't share election decision

13h ago

“It’s our hope, that as shutdowns occur in various areas of the Northern economy, there are always game plans in case that does happen. And I do know some workers have been able to get employment with some other groups in the community as well as in surrounding regions.”

Sierzycki said the uncertainty isn’t good for the Northern economy or the provincial economy in general.

Golden Band has not had discussions with the town’s council within the last year. Sierzycki said they are more than willing to meet with Golden Band at any time.

“Our main goal has been the workers and the families impacted. We worked with the Province of Saskatchewan when the initial layoffs occurred so that people were able to access programming from the provincial government and as a municipality, we’ll continue to lobby where we can under our jurisdiction,” the mayor said.

The shutdown has had another kind of effect on the company.

The company released its first-quarter results for 2015 on Monday. It reported a net loss of more than $2.8 million, which is less than the more than $4.2 million loss it saw in the same quarter the year before. Golden Band is attributing the lower net loss to the mining operations’ suspension.

Saxton said that they had mined and stockpiled and ran again for four months, but the grades weren’t what they wanted and the costs were higher than what they thought they could do. He said this wasn’t working to cover even their basic costs.

The property is under “care and maintenance” right now until Golden Band has sorted out how it will proceed with the structure of the company, he said.

“Being on a ‘care and maintenance’ we’ve not been up against some of the costs that we’d normally be up against if you’re in full operations and that’s the main reason for that,” Saxton said.

Because the company now doesn’t have any income, any costs it does have will be reflected as a loss. Saxton said that with production shut down, they’re working to keep costs as low as they can.

“We will always show losses until we start up again and have production.”

-With files from James Bowler.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames