| Red Lake mine | |
| Width: | 300px |
| Pushpin Map: | Canada |
| Pushpin Label: | Red Lake mine |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Red Lake mine |
| Coordinates: | 51.0612°N -93.7432°W |
| Place: | Red Lake |
| Subdivision Type: | Province |
| State/Province: | Ontario |
| Country: | Canada |
| Owner: | Evolution Mining |
| Official Website: | Red Lake |
| Acquisition Year: | 2019 |
| Products: | Gold |
| Opening Year: | 1949 |
The Red Lake mine was one of the largest gold mines in Canada and in the world.[1] The mine is located in northwestern Ontario at Red Lake.[1] The mine had estimated reserves of 3.23 million oz of gold in 2013.[1] Note that the Campbell and Red Lake mines are (or were) mining the same orebody, commonly referred to as the Campbell-Red Lake deposit.
The Red Lake Mining District has produced over 26 million ounces of gold through 2020, worth over $US 46 billion at 2020 prices. The two principal mines, Campbell and Red Lake, both have historic ore grades averaging about 0.57 oz/ton Au (22 g/tonne).[2] One famous sample, the "Campbell Mine Whopper", contained 431 ounces of gold in a football-sized rock.[3]
The rocks and mineralization features in this district are complex. The host rock here is a metamorphosed tholeiitic basalt dating to ~2.85 billion years (early Neoarchean). This basalt has been subjected to biotite-carbonate alteration and auriferous silicification. Gold mineralization has been dated to 2.712-2.723 billion years (during collision-related emplacement of several nearby igneous intrusions - Uchian Phase of the Kenoran Orogeny), and at 2.63-2.66 or 2.699 billion years (during a regional thermal event or another igneous intrusive event).[4]
On November 25, 2019, Newmont Goldcorp announced an agreement to sell the Red Lake complex to Evolution Mining.[5] As of early 2021, Evolution has announced resources of 2.9 Million oz Au at 6.9 gms Au/tonne, with a further 5.7 Million oz at 7.7 g/t indicated and 5.3 Million oz at 6.49 g/t inferred. Other projects in the district also are reporting promising results.[3]