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Alamos begins Temporary Suspension of Operations at Island Gold

Alamos Gold Inc.  today, (March 24, 2020) provided an update on the measures it has instituted to prevent the spread of COVID-19 including a 14 day suspension of operations at Island Gold.

To date, Alamos has not had any confirmed cases of COVID-19 among any of its employees or contractors and has not experienced any impact to its operations or its supply chain. Over the past two weeks, the Company has instituted a number of measures to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and protect the health and well-being of its employees and contractors, their families, and the local communities. This includes temporarily suspending operations at its Island Gold mine given the unique set-up of the operation with both a large local community and fly-in, fly-out workforce. The Company continues to closely monitor the situation and will institute additional measures as appropriate.

To date, operations at Young-Davidson and Mulatos have not been impacted. The Company is on track to achieve consolidated production guidance for the first quarter of 2020 of 105,000 to 110,000 ounces of gold.

“First and foremost, our focus is on ensuring we protect the health and safety of our employees and the communities in which we operate. At Island Gold, approximately half of our employees travel from various parts of Ontario and Quebec, while the other half are local residents. We have a very unique camp set-up at Island Gold, with the camp located directly within the town of Dubreuilville. For these reasons, we have decided that the best way to minimize the possible spread of the virus is to temporarily suspend the operation of the mine. This is a rapidly evolving situation and we will take further action based on the best available information,” said John A. McCluskey, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Temporary Suspension of Operations at Island Gold

The Island Gold mine is located southeast of the town of Dubreuilville and 83 kilometres northeast of Wawa in Northern Ontario. Approximately 50% of the workforce comes from the local communities with the other 50% housed in a camp within the town of Dubreuilville and operating on a fly-in, fly out basis from various other regions. To help prevent the potential spread of COVID-19 between these various communities, the Company will be scaling down activities over the next few days as part of a 14 day suspension of operations at Island Gold.

During this period, Island Gold will be placed on care and maintenance. A number of essential employees will remain on site to provide security, water management and other environmental protection activities.

Measures Taken Across all Operations

To date, operating activities at the Young-Davidson and Mulatos mines have not been impacted. The following measures have been instituted to prevent the potential spread of the virus:

  • Medical screening for all personnel upon entry to site for symptoms of COVID-19
  • Elimination of all non-essential business travel
  • Required 14 day quarantine for any employees returning from out of country travel
  • Rigid camp and site hygiene protocols have been instituted and are being followed
  • Social distancing practises have been implemented to limit interactions to only within functional groups or crews
  • Restrictions on visitor site access to only essential personnel
  • Sponsored a service to provide hot meals to those in need within Dubreuilville, including anyone with health issues, facing economic challenges, those at risk and residents 65 years of age or older

We continue to monitor the situation and will take additional measures as appropriate to protect the health and well-being of our employees, contractors and communities.

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