Mayfair Gold purchases offsets to make Fenn-Gib a rare ‘carbon-neutral’ project in Canada  

Mayfair Gold (TSXV: MFG) recently completed the purchase of carbon offsets to account for its 2021 emissions, making its Fenn-Gib gold exploration project in northern Ontario carbon neutral.  

Companies can buy carbon offsets to decrease theircarbon footprints. The funds provided are often invested in environment-friendly projects.  

Ontario-based Mayfair bought carbon offsets worth $14,760 for the 738 tonnes of carbon-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions produced by the company in 2021 as it drilled 89 exploration holes covering about 55,000 metres at the project in Timmins.  

It bought the offsets from the Thermal Residential Heating Aggregation project, run by Toronto-based firm Carbonzero. The project works to replace fossil fuel combustion heating with solar heating systems located at private residences across Canada.  

The offsets have been retired on the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Clean Projects Registry, a platform that showcases projects involved in emission reductions and carbon offsets.  

“The pressure on the mining industry due to global warming is enormous. If we are to sustain Canada’s gold mining industry, we have to curb the industry’s carbon emissions,” Patrick Evans, Mayfair’s CEO, told The Northern Miner.  

“Mayfair is a small company, but we hope to make a valuable contribution to changing the approach to gold mining in Canada,” he added.  

Located about 43 km northwest of Kirkland Lake, in the Guibord and Munro townships of northeast Ontario, Mayfair’s 100%-owned Fenn-Gib project covers about 48 sq. km and hosts an indicated resource of 70.2 million tonnes grading 0.92 gram gold per tonne for 2.1 million oz. gold. Inferred resources add 3.7 million tonnes grading 0.61 gram gold for 74,967 oz. gold.  

Highlights from the project’s drill results released in early May included 134.2 metres grading 0.93 gram gold per tonne starting from 328 metres in drillhole FG21-206 and 3 metres grading 21.84 grams gold starting from 104 metres in drillhole FG21-191.  

“We have five drill rigs turning and have drilled over 75,000 metres of an 80,000-metre drill program to grow the resource to over 3 million ounces, all of which is expected to be open pittable,” Evans said.  

The company aims to update its resource estimate in the third quarter this year and publish a preliminary economic assessment in the fourth. It hopes to begin a pre–feasibility study in the first quarter next year and if things go to plan, begin production by 2026.  

“The Fenn-Gib metallurgy is superb. Our met tests have confirmed that we can achieve gold recoveries of up to 94%,” Evans says. “Our focus is to build a flotation circuit to produce a clean, high-grade gold concentrate that can be processed at existing facilities offsite to minimize our impact on the environment.” 

While the ‘carbon-neutral’ project is at early stages, the company’s CEO is confident that it can maintain its net-zero target when Mayfair is developed as a mine.  

Located on the Highway 101, Evans said that the mine will be powered by the grid, which runs on hydroelectricity.  

The CEO said that it aims to use electric drills and loaders that run on battery and also install overhead electric cables to operate a trolley-assist mobile fleet system like the one released by Caterpillar in February 2020.  

The system reduces diesel engine emissions by depending upon electricity “during the most demanding part of the truck work cycle,” Caterpillar said in a press release.  The system can power a mining truck via trolley on a 10% grade as it climbs the ramp out of the pit and save up to 40 litres of diesel fuel per km of trolley line. 

“Investors pay very close attention to the ESG policies and practices of companies they invest in. Just about every institutional investor we speak to wants to know the details of our ESG polices,” said Evans, who aims to make Mayfair Canada’s first carbon-neutral gold mine.  

At press time on June 1, shares of Mayfair were trading at $1.28 within a 52-week trading range of 48.5¢ to $1.70. The company has 80.6 million shares outstanding.