History
In 1953, five struggling mining companies joined together to become Cobalt Consolidated Mining, which would last until 1957, when the company changed its name to Agnico Mines. “Agnico” is derived from the periodic table of elements using the symbols for silver (Ag), nickel (Ni) and cobalt (co). In 1963, visionary Paul Penna became the president of Agnico Mines, and he eventually oversaw the merger of Agnico Mines with Eagle Mines Ltd, a successful gold exploration company, enabling the development of Eagle’s Joutel mining complex. The newly formed company became Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited.
In 1974, the Joutel mine went into production and would eventually produce approximately 1.1 million ounces of gold until its closure in 1993. During this period, Agnico-Eagle also acquired the property and assets of Dumagami Mines Limited in north-western Quebec, which had recently gone into production a year earlier in 1988. The Dumagami mine would eventually be renamed the LaRonde mine, which is now considered the flagship mining operation for Agnico-Eagle, and one of the largest gold deposits in Canada. With LaRonde producing steadily, Agnico-Eagle acquired more assets over the following years.
In 1993, they completed the purchase of the Goldex mine, becoming the 100% owner of the largest unexploited gold deposit in Quebec. This was followed by the purchase of the Lapa gold deposit in 2000, Riddarhyttan Resources AB (the 100% owner of the Suurikuusikko gold deposit in northern Finland, which would become the Kittilä mine) in 2005, the Pinos Altos project in Mexico in 2006, and the purchase of Cumberland Resources in 2007, giving Agnico-Eagle 100% control of the Meadowbank gold project in Nunavut, Canada.
As a result of these purchases, the following years would see Agnico-Eagle grow from a single-operation gold producer (LaRonde) to a much larger company consisting of 6 mines in total, with Goldex going into production in 2008, Kittila, Lapa and Pinos Altos in 2009, and Meadowbank in 2010. In 2010, Agnico-Eagle completed the purchase of the Meliadine property, located southeast of Meadowbank near Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. In 2011, the company also announced a $70 million (CAD) investment in Rubicon Minerals, representing a 9.2% ownership stake and access to the Phoenix gold project located in the heart of Red Lake, Ontario.
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