The Eleonore gold project is an operational underground mining development in northern Quebec, Canada.
Goldcorp acquired the project from Virginia Gold Mines in 2005.
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The project was developed with an investment of $1.8bn (C$2.44bn) and has a mine life of 15 years. First gold from the Eleonore mine was poured in October 2014 and commercial production began in April 2015.
In April 2019, Newmont acquired Goldcorp, gaining ownership of the Elenore project.
In November 2024, Newmont announced its intent to sell the Eleonore operation to Dhilmar, a UK-based private mining company, for $795m (£581.64m).
The transaction follows Newmont’s plan, announced in February 2024, to divest non-core assets. The sale was completed in March 2025.
The Elenore gold project currently produces 246,000oz of gold per annum.
Project location
The Eleonore gold project is located approximately 350km north of Matagami Town in the mineral-rich James Bay region of Quebec, Canada.
Eleonore mine geology and reserves
The Eleonore gold project forms part of the clastic sediment-hosted Roberto gold deposit, which features two major auriferous zones, namely, Roberto and East Roberto, under the waters of the Opinaca reservoir.
The mining property is extended across more than 19,274 hectares within the contact zone between the La Grande and Opinaca sub-provinces and comprises 369 contiguous claims.
Gold mineralisation at Eleonore is intersected to a vertical depth of 1,400m and is mostly found within the stockworks of quartz-tourmaline-arsenopyrite veins and veinlets.
Proven and probable reserves at the Eleonore gold project were estimated at 10.1 million tonnes (mt) grading 5.05 grams per tonne gold with 1.6 million ounces in contained metals as of December 2024.
Mining and processing of ore at Eleonore gold mine
A combination of open-stoping and longitudinal retreat stoping methods is employed for the underground mining at Eleonore.
The mining plan includes initial production from the upper portions of the Roberto deposit using the Gaumond/ventilation shaft. Deeper gold resources were accessed by a production shaft running to a depth of 1,190m below the surface in 2018.
Using 55t trucks, ore is hauled to the loading stations located at a depth of 715m before being transported to the surface via the Gaumond/ventilation shaft.
The operation initially included a 3,500 tonnes per day (tpd) processing plant, which was expanded to process 7,000tpd in 2018.
The process flow at the plant includes three-stage crushing, a single stage of ball mill grinding, gravity concentration, sulphides flotation, cyanide leaching and gold production in a carbon-in-pulp (CIP) circuit.
Ore from the surface bin is conveyed to the primary feed hopper via conveyors and then fed to the primary jaw crusher, and secondary and tertiary crushers. The crushed material is conveyed to a ball mill, which operates in a closed circuit with a cyclone pack.
The ore material then passes through a floatation circuit, where a frother is added to produce a stable froth and recover 95% of gold sulphide. The sulphide concentrate is transferred to the flotation concentrate cyanidation circuit.
The concentrate is then leached, and the slurry is transferred to the concentrate CIP circuit for adsorption. The flotation concentrate stream is then pumped to the concentrate CIP thickener through a carbon safety screen. The gold concentrate finally undergoes an electro-winning process to produce gold doré bars.
Infrastructure facilities at Eleonore mine
Power supply for the mining operations and processing plant is provided from the Eleonore main 120/25kV substation.
Drinking water supply for the campsite and industrial area is sourced from four wells located 1.2km north-east of the project campsite.
Other major infrastructure facilities for the gold mining project include two shafts, a surface ramp, a waste rock storage dump, tailings storage facilities and a process plant.
Contractors involved
SNC-Lavalin was awarded a contract in January 2013 to provide engineering, procurement and construction management and project management services for the Eleonore project.
MIPAC Process Automation Canada delivered IsaControl instrumentation and an automated control system for the grinding circuit at the Eleonore processing plant.
UK-based DavyMarkham was awarded the contract to supply two double-drum hoists for the underground gold mining project.
ABB Montreal was subcontracted by DavyMarkham for the supply of electrical drive equipment for these two hoists.
Howden was contracted to design and implement a ventilation control system to optimise the supply of fresh air to the mine.
