A takeover of Northgate Minerals Corp. by AuRico Gold Inc. will have no effect on the proposed Kemess North underground project, a Northgate spokeswoman said this week.
"It's just business as usual and we have no reason to believe it's not going to continue to go on," said investor relations director Keren Yun.
The company first announced last year it was trying to resurrect the Kemess North project, 425 kilometres north of Prince George, as an underground mine last year after it was rejected as an open pit mine by a federal regulatory panel in 2007.
The project is assisted by the fact most of the infrastructure - including roads, power, mine processing facilities and areas to store mine waste - is in place from the nearby Kemess South mine, which stopped operating this spring after 13 years.
About 350 people worked at the former Kemess South mine with an estimated 100 of them living in Prince George. The city was also a supply and service centre for the mine.
The company is preparing to file its preliminary economic assessment for the project, which its initial estimates have pegged as a 95,000-ounce-per-year mine for a 12-year mine life.
AuRico's acquisition of Northgate through a stock-swap transaction valued at $1.46 billion was announced Monday.
The transaction put a stop to Northgate's planned purchase of Primero Mining Corp. for $409 million, announced last month.
All three trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
