¾ÅÓÎÏÂÔØapk

Agnico Eagle Mines, Canada’s biggest gold miner, wants the new government to develop a formal Arctic strategy in response to US President Donald Trump’s threats to make Canada its 51st state, the company’s Chairman Sean Boyd said.

Earlier this year, Agnico overtook Barrick Mining’s market capitalization to become the world’s second-largest gold miner, just below Newmont Corp, the largest extractor of bullion by production and market capitalization.

Agnico is expanding its Hope Bay gold project in Nunavut, the northernmost province of Canada that borders the Arctic Ocean and Greenland and wants the incoming Canadian government to promote investment in infrastructure in the Arctic.

“It’s noise (Trump’s threats), but as a country, we have to take it really seriously… and we have been calling for a more formalized, structured Arctic strategy in this country,” Boyd told Reuters in an interview.

He said the company would be “way more forceful” going forward to advocate for the Arctic strategy with Ottawa, because it sees the opportunity for growth in the North.

“It’s pretty clear, based on the US interest in Greenland and the US administration’s comments around Canada and critical metals, that Canada needs to focus more on the opportunity that exists in Canada’s far north and in the communities and in the people that live in the far north,” Boyd said.

Hope Bay is expected to come back into production by early next year after the company put the mine in care and maintenance in 2023 to focus on drilling its resources.

Agnico, one of the few gold miners with assets in Canada, is betting big on the country even as some of its other peers look to sell their domestic assets.

Its strategy has paid off with investors as its share price has jumped by 45% year to date, making it one of the best-performing mining companies among its peers, Refinitiv data show.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Barrick Gold, another Canadian miner, was looking to sell it’s only mine in the country. However, Boyd has ruled out Agnico buying the asset as it’s too small.

“We’ve got a really strong pipeline of bigger projects. So our strategy isn’t to pick up smaller things and try to make them better,” he said.

Canada’s North has some of the biggest mineral resources in the world, including gold and other critical metals, but it has poor infrastructure compared to the rest of Canada. Nunuvut Premier P.J. Akeeagok, told Reuters last month that the threat from the south of Canada means it is time for the new government to step up and build the basic infrastructure in the region.

“I think there’s an incredible opportunity here in the north to bring different corridors through,” Akeeagok said.

(By Divya Rajagopal; Editing by Veronica Brown and Susan Fenton)