Lake Shore Gold CEO shares challenges and successes: Tony Makuch kicked off Modern Mining and Technology Week in Sudbury.

• Author: Migneault, Jonathan
• Position: NEWS

Timmins-based Lake Shore Gold has come a long way since a rough patch in 2012 and 2013 when a lot of investors thought the gold producer could go bankrupt.

The company's first quarter of 2015 was its best ever, with a record production of 53,000 ounces of gold, which represented a 19 per cent increase over the same period in 2014.

Tony Makuch, Lake Shore's president and CEO, kicked off Modern Mining and Technology Week in Sudbury on April 24 with a keynote about the company's trials, tribulations, and more recent successes.

"No one thought there was any value in these deposits," Makuch said, referring to the company's two Timmins mines: Bell Creek and Timmins West.

"You have to believe in the mining industry, and that gold will be discovered," he added. "I didn't know what we would find there in Timmins."

The company started its mine shaft for Timmins West in 2008, and entered full commercial production in 2010.

But things didn't really take off for Lake Shore Gold's stock price until the company completed a milling facility at the Bell Creek complex in 2013.

This year, the company announced it had increased its gold reserves by 29 per cent over the previous year, from...