Newmont Goldcorp cuts ribbon on mine: Chapleau-area Borden Mine is Canada's first all-electric underground operation.

Corporate and political dignitaries gathered outside Chapleau for the official opening of Newmont Goldcorp's Borden Mine in September.

Canada's first all-electric mine features leading-edge health and safety controls, digital mining technologies and processes, and a battery-powered fleet of low-carbon energy vehicles.

Borden is headed toward commercial production for the fourth quarter of this year. The mine is expected to create 250 jobs for local and Indigenous people in the Chapleau area.

The Chapleau-area operation will benefit the company's Timmins operations, 180 kilometres to the east, as gold-bearing ore from Borden will be processed at the Porcupine complex.

"Borden opens a new gold mining district in Ontario and profitably extends operations at the Porcupine complex near Timmins," said company president Tom Palmer in a Sept. 23 news release.

"In addition, Borden's electric underground fleet will eliminate diesel particulate matter from the underground environment and lower greenhouse gas emissions. This will help reduce energy costs, protect employee health and minimize impacts to the environment."

Borden is fully permitted for commercial operation and partnership agreements have been signed with area First Nations. The federal and provincial governments each contributed $5 million toward the electrification of the mine.

Newmont Goldcorp has a land package in the area of 1,000 square kilometres in a relatively underexplored mineral belt in northeastern Ontario with no mining history.

The company has said it will continue to test the extensions of...