There is gold here in the southwestern wilds of Quebec, Canada. The ore is typically found in volcanic rocks that were deposited more than 2.7 billion years ago on what was then the sea floor. This is the home of the Abitibi gold belt, a region that has produced more than 100 mines and 170 million ounces of gold since the beginning of the 20th century. Val d’Or, French for “valley of gold,” sits practically on the “buckle” of the Abitibi gold belt, and has itself produced around 45 million ounces of gold since the 1930s.

Agnico Eagle’s flagship operation, the LaRonde mine, is about 60 kilometres due west of Val d’Or. The Canadian miner is an expert at extracting the glittering precious metal. Since the gold price took its more than 40 percent plunge from a 2011 high, Agnico Eagle has more than survived: it has blossomed. In the third quarter of 2015, for every dollar of gold the resilient miner sold, 49 cents was gross profit, the best performance among 15 major producers tracked by Bloomberg Business.

“After discovering and mining out the LaRonde ore body from 2000 to 2012, we planned to dig deeper,” says Christian Goulet, general mine superintendent at Agnico Eagle’s LaRonde mine. “It is the same ore body, but since 2012 we started mining below 2.5 kilometres, which is what we refer to as the LaRonde extension.

“The next step for us is to generate a feasibility study for a possible LaRonde 3, which would be between 3.1 and 3.7 kilometres.”

Before their shifts start in the early morning hours, miners mill around the well-lit staging area inside Agnico Eagle’s functionally modern facility, preparing to descend 2,800 metres and start their workday. There is a definite strut to their walk and lightness in their demeanour born of confidence in one’s abilities. Laughter rings out on the elevator ride down but comes to an abrupt halt when the alarm buzzes, indicating the elevator has reached its destination.

Just accessing the gold and other precious metals so far underground is daunting. At 2.8 kilometres deep, the temperature rises to around 30 degrees Celsius. Add to that the heat generated by the equipment and the conditions can be harsh, which is why the company installed a cooling unit to relieve the heat stress. And then there are the seismic events. At this depth, seismic activity is the norm rather than the exception. Every so often there is a sharp popping sound that shakes the earth and all those in it.

“At LaRonde, it is vital that we understand the conditions of the mine,” says Stephane Lacroix, Sandvik Mining field service manager. “Sometimes there are seismic events, which can be surprisingly loud.”

Goulet concurs, calling the seismicity one of his mine’s greatest challenges.

“As we go deeper, the pressure in the rock increases,” he says. “The rock also becomes more brittle around depths of 2.5 to 3 kilometres, which generates increased seismicity. So we have to adapt the ground support, put a lot of seismic sensors in place and carefully follow the safety protocol whenever we have these seismic events.”

“The Sandvik RD314 drills a hole in 50 to 60 seconds on average,” Audet says. “The competitor’s drill clocked in at a minute and 10 seconds to a minute and a half, which is 20 percent slower than the Sandvik RD314. Over the course of a month, that’s up to a 1,500-metre difference in drill efficiency.  We end up saving about CAD $0.50 per metre, and at 90,000 metres per bolter that’s a savings of $45,000 per bolter per year.

“Stephane Lacroix from Sandvik was working very closely with me at the time, and so we decided to implement a change plan to get Sandvik RD314s on more rigs,” Audet says.  “That was two years ago. At the moment, we have eight bolting machines out of a fleet of 12 working with the Sandvik RD314 rock drill.”

The close relationship allowed Lacroix to custom-design the rock drill, changing the feed engine for steadier drilling and a bigger water hose to flush the hole quicker.

“After this, and a few other little tweaks, we had a much better performing drill,” Lacroix says. “This drill does 500 hours on average before our preventive maintenance schedule requires us to remove and inspect it. We make modifications according to the needs of the mine, so more than anything we need to have good lines of communication to understand those needs explicitly.”

Goulet adds, “We like Sandvik drilling units and we feel that they fit with our overall strategy. Getting those drills was a good move for us as they are faster and more available, so we obviously reap better savings. We always want to be in a win-win situation, and with these drills in place we can focus on developing our expansion plans and delivering on time and on budget.”