The Valentine gold project is an open-pit mining operation in the province of Newfoundland, Canada. It is being developed by Canadian gold mining company Equinox Gold.
Open-pit mining operations commenced in April 2025. Plant construction was completed in the third quarter (Q3) of 2025 and ore processing began in August 2025.
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The first gold pour was achieved in September 2025, with commercial production commencing in November at 80% of nameplate capacity.
In March 2026, Equinox Gold filed an updated technical report documenting current operations and planned future developments.
The mine produced 23,816oz of gold in 2025 and is forecast to deliver between 150,000oz and 200,000oz in 2026.
Equinox Gold is progressing plans to advance the phase two expansion of the project, aimed at boosting throughput from 2.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 5mtpa.
Construction is expected to commence in Q3 2026, with phase two ramp-up targeted for the second half of 2028.
Development background
The Valentine Lake property, which hosts the project, was initially owned by the Canadian gold mining company Marathon Gold. A pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the project was released by Marathon Gold in April 2020, followed by a technical and feasibility report in April 2021 and an updated feasibility study in December 2022.
In November 2023, Marathon Gold announced an agreement for acquisition by Calibre Mining. The transaction was completed in January 2024 and Calibre Mining became the owner of the mine.
Equinox Gold and Calibre Mining announced plans for a business combination in February 2025, under which Equinox Gold acquired all issued and outstanding common shares of Calibre Mining. The transaction was completed in June 2025 and Equinox Gold gained full ownership of the Valentine gold project.
Valentine gold project location
The Valentine gold mine is situated in west-central Newfoundland, Canada.
It contains five defined gold deposits known as Leprechaun, Sprite, Berry, Marathon and Victory, as well as several additional early-stage gold prospects. Together, these deposits and mineral occurrences lie within a 32km-long, north-east trending mineralised corridor.
The land package comprises 30 contiguous mineral licences covering 313km² (31,300 hectares, or ha), all held 100% by Equinox. Equinox also holds a 2,129ha surface lease, along with a further 452ha of surface rights required for the Berry Pit and associated infrastructure.
Geology and mineralisation
The Valentine property lies within the Victoria Lake Supergroup, which forms part of the Exploits Subzone of the Dunnage Zone. The Supergroup is dominated by low-grade Cambro-Ordovician Island arc and back-arc volcanic, volcaniclastic and epiclastic rocks, principally from the Talley Pond and Tulks Hill volcanic assemblages. These assemblages are largely volcanic in character, with one or more interbedded sequences of clastic sedimentary rocks.
Gold mineralisation at the Valentine Lake property occurs in quartz-tourmaline-pyrite-gold (QTP-gold) vein networks linked to D3-stage extension and shear deformation. The gold is manifested in the form of structurally controlled, orogenic deposits dominated by south-west dipping en-echelon stacked extensional vein sets and shear parallel vein sets. The gold deposits are primarily hosted by the Neoproterozoic Valentine Lake Intrusive Complex.
Mineral reserves
The proven and probable mineral reserves at the Valentine gold project were estimated at 51.49 million tonnes (mt), grading 1.66 grams per tonne for 2.75 million ounces in contained gold as of December 2025.
Mining operations at Valentine gold project
The Valentine gold project utilises conventional open-pit methods to recover gold. In parts of the Marathon, Leprechaun and Berry deposits, a selective mining approach is used to improve grade control. Given the limited vertical continuity of the orebody, the plan is to adopt flitch mining.
Ore is extracted in flitches that operate as small benches, with each flitch mined on a blast-by-blast basis. The design includes a 6m bench height, 3m flitches and a 12m3 loader in a backhoe configuration.
Development of the Leprechaun pit is split into three phases, including an initial phase followed by two pushbacks.
The Berry pit development is split into five mining phases. The initial two phases will target the low-strip-ratio portions of the deposit, while the latter will target the higher-strip-ratio portions of the deposit.
The Marathon pit will feature four mining phases with the first two phases targeting low-strip-ratio mineralisation, while the later phases will target higher strip-ratio mineralisation below the previous phases, respectively.
Ore processing
The processing plant currently treats ore using a conventional gravity and cyanidation flowsheet and is designed for a nominal capacity of 2.5mtpa.
The run-of-mine ore undergoes crushing in a primary jaw crusher and is conveyed to a covered stockpile providing approximately 19 hours of live storage. The crushed ore is then conveyed to a semi-autogenous grinding mill with hydrocyclones.
Cyclone overflow is routed to the leaching circuit, while the underflow is sent to an effective grinding length ball mill, with the mill discharge returning to the cyclone feed pump box. The slurry then reports to the gravity concentration circuit to recover coarse gold.
The gravity circuit includes a centrifugal concentrator with a feed scalping screen. Gravity concentrate is processed in batches through a CS3000 intensive cyanidation unit, after which the pregnant solution is pumped to the electrowinning circuit. Residue from the intensive leach reactor is directed to the gravity tails pump box before being returned to the grinding circuit.
Cyclone overflow from the existing ball mill cyclones flows by gravity to the trash screen. Screen underflow is pumped to the pre-aeration tank before leaching, where sodium cyanide is added to dissolve the gold.
Loaded carbon from the carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuit is pumped and screened, then sent through the acid wash column before being transferred to the elution column for gold stripping using the conventional pressure Zadra process. Gold is recovered from the pregnant solution by electrowinning and smelted to produce doré bars.
The planned phase two expansion of the process plant to 5mtpa capacity will add a second jaw crusher circuit, a secondary crushing circuit, a pebble crusher and a second ball mill. A pre-leach thickening stage will be added along with a larger tailings thickener.
Additionally, the pre-aeration, leaching and CIL tank train will be reconfigured, with three additional CIL tanks included. A sulphur burner system will also be installed, alongside the conversion of the existing sodium metabisulphite system to a sodium hydroxide mixing system. The process water system will also be modified.
Infrastructure at Valentine Lake
The project site is accessible via an 80km-long gravel road from the town of Millertown, which is connected to the Buchans Highway and the Trans-Canada Highway.
Electricity for the mine is provided by Newfoundland Labrador Hydro via a newly built 40km-long, 66kV transmission line.
The process plant mainly relies on reclaimed water from the tailings pond to meet its water requirements, with fresh water from NL Hydro’s Victoria Lake reservoir used as a secondary supply.
The permanent and construction camps are situated within the mine site and currently provide accommodation for up to 650 people. Work has started on a new operations camp for 200 people. Once operational, it will replace part of the existing construction camp accommodation, lifting overall on-site capacity to 765 people.
Under the phase two expansion plans, a further camp for 400 people is set to be developed, taking the total accommodation capacity to 1,165.
Contractors involved
Australian engineering company Ausenco Engineering Canada prepared the 2020 PFS, 2021 feasibility and technical study, and the 2022 updated feasibility report for the project, along with Moose Mountain Technical Services (MMTS), APEX Geoscience, Golder Associates, Stantec Consulting and Terrane Geoscience.
Additional contractors involved in the 2021 and 2022 feasibility studies are John T. Boyd Company, GEMTEC Consulting Engineers and Scientists, JR Goode and Associates, and SNC-Lavalin, as well as Vieng Consulting and Progesys.
Equinox Gold appointed SLR Consulting (Canada) to prepare a technical report on the project with inputs from Equinox, MMTS, Terrane Geosciences and Lincoln Metallurgical.
Other contractors involved in the project are Reliable Controls Corporation, Gisborne Group, Brook Construction, Technical Management Group and G Mining Services, as well as Giffen Consulting and ABB.
