Yukon’s Coffee Gold mine project changing hands to Canadian company

By Gabrielle Plonka 

Newmont Corporation selling Coffee Gold project as part of ‘non-core asset’ divestment

Newmont Corporation, an American mining company, has sold the Coffee Gold mine project in Yukon to a smaller, Vancouver-based company.

Fuerte Metals purchased the Coffee Gold project for up to $150 million USD, which is equivalent to roughly $205 million CAD. Most of that will be paid in stock shares and royalties.

Fuerte Metals owns two early-stage exploration projects in Chile and Mexico, but it doesn’t currently own an operating mine. CEO Tim Warman says the company is looking for a project to “build a company around.”

The Coffee Gold project is a proposed heap leach gold mine located 130 kilometres south of Dawson City. It was approved through the environmental assessment process in 2022. Project activities — including closure and reclamation plans — are expected to span 24 years.

Warman says the next year will be spent getting permits and financing. Then, it will take about two years to build the mine before it can go into commercial operation.

“It’s probably a lot closer to being a mine than most people think,” Warman said.

Fuerte Metals says it will inherit and honour Newmont’s agreements with the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin and White River First Nations. They were signed in 2018 and 2021, respectively. White River First Nation alerted citizens to the impending sale last March. It said legal provisions transferred its agreement to any new owner.

This could be the first heap leach project to open after the Eagle mine failure in 2024.

Warman says he’s familiar with the report into the mine failure and he agrees with the recommendations set out to improve heap leach mining. His previous role was CEO of a company that ran an open pit heap leach mine in Nevada.

“We want to focus on safety, on the environment, and then you have a well-run operation,” he said.

In February 2024, Newmont Corporation announced it would be selling “non-core assets” including Coffee Gold and seven other projects and operations.