Alamos Gold said the federal Environmental Impact Assessment for the Lynn Lake gold project in Manitoba has been completed and approved by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada. The province has also issued Environment Act licences for the MacLellan and Gordon sites.

Since the completion of the 2017 feasibility study on the Lynn Lake project, exploration around the Gordon and MacLellan deposits have driven a 27% increase in mineral reserves to 2.1 million ounces of gold, the company said.

“Achieving both of these important regulatory milestones for the Lynn Lake gold project represents a multi-year, collaborative effort by our team and our commitment to environmental sustainability,” CEO John McCluskey said in a news release.

“Lynn Lake is a significant opportunity to drive the future growth of our business in Canada, with the potential to increase our annual production to approximately 800,000 ounces of gold per year,” he said.

With a large, underexplored land package totalling 58,000-hectares, C$5 million ($3.6m) is budgeted for exploration in 2023, including 8,000 metres of drilling focused on several advanced regional targets.

The company aims to expand mineral reserves and resources in proximity to the Gordon deposit, and evaluate the Burnt Timber and Linkwood deposits, which contain inferred mineral resources totaling 1.6 million ounces grading 1.1 g/t Au as of December 31, 2022.

Alamos said it also aims to advance of a pipeline of prospective exploration targets within the property, including the Tulune greenfields discovery and the Maynard target.

An updated feasibility study is expected to be completed during the first half of 2023.