“Over the past 18 months, we have successfully restarted the Beaufor mine and refurbished the Beacon mill with a new production and exploration strategy, while dealing with the many challenges caused by the pandemic and recent geopolitical and economic events. Despite some delays due to the plant’s automation systems and lost time due to COVID-19, we are proud to have achieved our goals with a slight delay of only six weeks,” said Monarch President and CEO Jean-Marc Lacoste.

The next step, Lacoste said, will be to gradually increase the production rate of the Beacon mill to reach commercial production, “a goal we expect to achieve in the coming months.”